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Date publication
septembre 2008
Résumé
There are undoubtedly many ways to tackle the question of the status of language in medicine. The practice of medicine does not fall entirely within the realm of biological science but is also a linguistic, narrative process. It is the specific nature of the iatrogenic aspect of language that allows us to trace a path in this article from the doctor's point of view, to that of the patient. The hypothesis advanced here suggests that in order to avoid injuring professional pride by labeling some procedures as "damaging to the patient due to the doctor's actions", medicine has used a form of linguistic masking by employing the term "iatrogenic". A similar device can be observed in the field of pain therapy, where somatic diagnosis is used to avoid naming anxiety, as this would involve the "deconstruction" of some overall distress situations and of the related iatrogenic diagnoses. Pathologization, medicalization, somatization: or how (medical) language may on occasion intensify or prolong "painful" circumstances...
Référence
Douleur Analg. 2008 Sep;21(3):149-53
