Roosmaryn Pilgram on “My friends keep asking me why I don’t get antibiotics. Patients’ references to third parties as strategic manoeuvres”

In medical consultations, patients do not always, fully or directly express doubts or criticisms about the doctors’ claims and proposals. Yet, patients’ expressions of concern are vital for engaging in shared decision-making. After all, the patient and doctor should come to a shared medical decision based on exploring the pros and cons of a treatment together, but if a patient has lingering concerns about these pros and cons, a decision cannot be truly considered shared.

Patients could nonetheless attempt to get their concerns across in the consultation by referring to someone they know who apparently holds a similar concern (“A colleague of mine said that light therapy might help”). By means of reported speech, or a simple reference to someone who is not physically present at the consultation, patients can indirectly present doubts or even counterarguments. This is a potentially strategic move in treatment decision-making, since patients can decide themselves how to depict the others’ views.

In this talk, I will examine in which ways patients’ references to third parties can be used strategically to express concerns about a doctor’s contributions in medical consultations. Specifically, I will distinguish patients’ simple mentioning of a non-present other from their use of reported speech (and its presentation – i.e., as direct, indirect or free indirect speech). Subsequently, I will outline the different argumentative functions references to others can fulfil in the discourse (e.g., the other as opposing antagonist or as authority in authority argumentation). Lastly, by means of actual examples from medical consultations, I will analyse how patients’ references to third parties can be used as strategic manoeuvres in medical consultations.

Roosmaryn Pilgram (Leiden University Centre for Linguistics)

To join the session on Zoom, please get in touch with Maria Grazia Rossi at mgrazia.rossi@fcsh.unl.pt for the details.

This event is part of the ArgLab Research Colloquium organised by Maria Grazia Rossi, Giulia Terzian and Gloria Andrada at the Laboratory of Argumentation, Cognition and Language of the NOVA Institute of Philosophy. For any inquiries, please contact Maria Grazia, Giulia, or Gloria.