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Part of
Intersubjectivity in Action: Studies in language and social interaction
Edited by Jan Lindström, Ritva Laury, Anssi Peräkylä and Marja-Leena Sorjonen
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 326] 2021
► pp. 183–

Building an intersubjective understanding of the patient’s mental suffering

| University of Helsinki,
The experience of suffering may result in a breakdown of commonly shared meaning, namely the disintegration of intersubjectivity. This article investigates patients’ expressions of suffering and professionals’ attempts to maintain intersubjective understanding in interactions that are conducted in psychiatric outpatient care. The analysis demonstrates that patients’ expressions of suffering involve a strong emotional experience and a particular kind of passivity: tolerance of agonising pain and endurance of what is unbearable. For their part, professionals attempt to verbalise and explain the patient’s experience in order to build a shared world of meaning. The article argues that by locating suffering in the symptoms of an illness, professionals structure suffering into a medical problem. This enables them to suggest appropriate treatment options aimed at eliminating suffering.
Keywords: intersubjective understanding, empathy, emotion, explanation, pain, psychiatry, suffering, treatment
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Dealing with mental suffering in psychiatry
  • 3.Patient’s descriptions of mental suffering
  • 4.Responding to patient’s expressions of suffering
  • 5.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 17 November 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.326.09wei
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