Weiste2021a
Weiste2021a | |
---|---|
BibType | INCOLLECTION |
Key | Weiste2021a |
Author(s) | Elina Weiste |
Title | Building an intersubjective understanding of the patient’s mental suffering |
Editor(s) | Jan Lindström, Ritva Laury, Anssi Peräkylä, Marja-Leena Sorjonen |
Tag(s) | EMCA, Intersubjectivity, Conversation analysis |
Publisher | John Benjamins |
Year | 2021 |
Language | English |
City | Amsterdam |
Month | |
Journal | |
Volume | |
Number | |
Pages | 183-199 |
URL | Link |
DOI | |
ISBN | |
Organization | |
Institution | |
School | |
Type | |
Edition | |
Series | |
Howpublished | |
Book title | Intersubjectivity in Action: Studies in language and social interaction |
Chapter |
Abstract
The experience of suffering may result in a breakdown of commonly shared meaning, namely the disintegration of intersubjectivity. This article investigates patients’ expressions of suffering and professionals’ attempts to maintain intersubjective understanding in interactions that are conducted in psychiatric outpatient care. The analysis demonstrates that patients’ expressions of suffering involve a strong emotional experience and a particular kind of passivity: tolerance of agonising pain and endurance of what is unbearable. For their part, professionals attempt to verbalise and explain the patient’s experience in order to build a shared world of meaning. The article argues that by locating suffering in the symptoms of an illness, professionals structure suffering into a medical problem. This enables them to suggest appropriate treatment options aimed at eliminating suffering.
Notes