Professor Howard Waitzkin All Books sku-45968815 Paperback

Professor Howard Waitzkin's paperback The Politics of Medical Encounters: How Patients and Doctors Deal With Social Problems is listed in All Books as sku-45968815. Waitzkin examines how concerns rooted in work, family life, gender roles and sexuality, aging, substance use, and other social problems arise in conversations between patients and doctors.

He argues that focusing on physical complaints can leave those concerns unaddressed and reinforce the conditions behind them. Drawing on transcripts of recorded medical encounters and perspectives from structuralism, post-structuralism, and critical literary theory, he describes how doctors may unintentionally dominate conversations, encourage conformity, and marginalize patients' social concerns.

He calls for physicians and patients to clarify medical language together, avoid treating social problems solely with medication or reassurance, and consider advocacy aimed at changing harmful social conditions.