Patient–Physician Relationship

No topic is more central to a general understanding of medicine in modern society than the patient–physician relationship. Few topics have so actively focused the attention of social scientists, the thinking public, and medical/health practitioners. No other topic is so closely keyed to the emergence in the 1950s of medical sociology as a distinct, important, and very sizable field of research, teaching, and public policy relevance in sociology. To capture and describe the patient–physician relationship a good starting point is to think of it generically, as a helping relationship: one person helping another. The physician as a trained professional possesses resources – knowledge, skills, and experience – from which the patient can benefit. Further, the physician is committed to the well‐being of the patient – not unlike the stance of a parent toward their child. Reciprocally, the patient depends on the expertise and trustworthiness of the physician

Family medicine · Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues · Medicine · Psychology

• Professional Dominance

  Open Access•Eliot Freidson, Robert A Manners•Professional Dominance•2017

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