Besides the growth of health consumerism has demanded more contractual and conflicting relations between patient and doctor. A growing well-educated population has started to challenge medical authority, and treat the doctor-patient relationships as another supplier-consumer relationship instead of a sacred trust based on awe and deference. A general tendency has been seen in steadily reducing trust in physicians and also American medical system as a whole. (The Doctor-Patient Relationship: A Review)

Such trends have interested many symbolic interactionists and discourse analysts to start detailed analyses of doctor-patient communication to counteract the imposition of power and authority within them. The study performed by Howard Waizkin has drawn peculiar attention to the path that American medical communication strengthens individualistic, bio-medical interpretations of problems along with social origins and social remedies and thus represents and regenerates social inequality and disenfranchisement. The studies have also revealed that various kinds of communication influence differently the...
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