The Communication Panacea: Pediatrics and General Semantics

The Communication Panacea: Pediatrics and General Semantics fills a major gap in the study of the modern doctor-patient relationship, applying the principles of General Semantics to the uncanny communicative processes affecting the way patients perceive their illness, as well as their response to it. Writing in the tradition of Neil Postman, Ivan Illich, and Susan Sontag, this collaboration between a doctor of philosophy and a doctor of medicine combines an innovative theoretical approach with the stories of eight patients shared not as 'case-studies,' but as key-moments to show how vital it is to change our mentality and our language when addressing the idea of illness itself. The authors coin the term "personalised semantic medicine" and suggest it as a strategy to regain focus on the patient within the increasingly complex, corporate-like and technological medical environment. They challenge us to make a linguistic and conceptual shift to think of medicine as art and not as war, and provide an accessible and valuable contribution to the study of language and social interaction, strategic communication, general semantics, media ecology, cultural studies, social theory, and the practice of medicine, making the book relevant for doctors, patients, and policy makers, as well as media and health communication scholars.