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Pastoral Power and the Confessing Subject in Patient-Centred Communication

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Abstract

This paper examines the power relations in “patient-centred communication”. Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault I argue that while patient-centred communication frees the patient from particular aspects of medical power, it also introduces the patient to new power relations. The paper uses a Foucauldian analysis of power to argue that patient-centred communication introduces a new dynamic of power relations to the medical encounter, entangling and producing the patient to participate in the medical encounter in a particular manner.

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Correspondence to Christopher Mayes.

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Mayes, C. Pastoral Power and the Confessing Subject in Patient-Centred Communication. Bioethical Inquiry 6, 483–493 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-009-9195-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-009-9195-9

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