You are here

Communicating Health and Illness
Share

Communicating Health and Illness

First Edition


October 2001 | 182 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd

 

"It raises a number of thorny issues concerning what communication is, or might be, for embodied people… I enjoyed reading this book and it goes on my shelf in the knowledge that I shall reach for it again. It also becomes a key reference on my list of recommendations for students taking my 'health and illness' course… it deserves to be read as an excellent review of the field at present." - European Journal of Communication

 

In this book Richard Gwyn demonstrates the centrality of discourse analysis to an understanding of health and communication. Focusing on language and communication issues he demonstrates that it is possible to observe and analyze patterns in the ways in which health and illness are represented and articulated by both health professionals and lay people. Communicating Health and Illness: - Explores culturally validated notions of health and sickness and the medicalization of illness - Surveys media representations of health and illness - Considers the metaphoric nature of talk about illness - Contributes to the ongoing debate in relation to narrative based medicine

 
Introduction
 
The Body, Disease and Discourse
 
`Lay' Talk about Illness
 
Power, Asymmetry and Decision-Making in Medical Encounters
 
The Media, Expert Opinion and Health Scares
 
Metaphors of Sickness and Recovery
 
Narrative and the Voicing of Illness
 
Conclusion

Richard Gwyn

Purchasing options

Please select a format:

ISBN: 9780761964759
£53.00
ISBN: 9780761964742
£156.00

SAGE Knowledge is the ultimate social sciences digital library for students, researchers, and faculty. Hosting more than 4,400 titles, it includes an expansive range of SAGE eBook and eReference content, including scholarly monographs, reference works, handbooks, series, professional development titles, and more.

The platform allows researchers to cross-search and seamlessly access a wide breadth of must-have SAGE book and reference content from one source.