Disclosing and responding to cancer “fears” during oncology interviews

• Published in: Social science & medicine (1982) Vol. 60; no. 4; pp. 893 - 910
• Main Authors: Beach, Wayne A., Easter, David W., Good, Jeffrey S., Pigeron, Elisa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.02.2005; Elsevier; Pergamon Press Inc
• Series: Social Science & Medicine
• Subjects: Attitude to Health; Biological and medical sciences; Cancer; Communication; Conversation analysis; Conversational Analysis; Fear; Fear & phobias; Fear - psychology; Humans; Interviews; Interviews as Topic; Medical sciences; Miscellaneous; Neoplasms - psychology; Oncology; Oncology interviews; Oncology interviews Conversation analysis Video USA; Patients; Physician-Patient Relations; Practitioner Patient Relationship; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; United States of America; USA; Video; Videotape Recording; Videotape Recordings; Videotapes; United States; North America; America; United States > US; USA; Oncology interviews; Conversation analysis; Video; Affect affectivity; Patient; Conversation; Emotion emotionality; Malignant tumor; Stress; Interview; Fear; Physician patient relation; Language; Behavioral analysis; Discourse analysis; Public health
• ISSN: 0277-9536; 1873-5347
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.06.031

Video-excerpts from routine oncology interviews are examined to reveal how patients demonstrate and doctors respond to “fears” about cancer. Vocally and visually, embodied impacts of dealing with dreaded consequences of cancer are apparent when addressing both good and potentially bad cancer news. Even a “brush” with cancer can promote negative and ongoing impacts provoking unresolved illness dilemmas. We reveal how, in the midst of extending answers and initiating concerns, patients exhibit trepidations when volunteering narrative information about their medical history and experience of symptoms. In response, doctors are shown to acknowledge yet exhibit minimal receptiveness to patients’ lifeworld disclosures and demonstrations (e.g., redirecting attention away from patients’ concerns by offering “textbook” symptoms and related pursuits of biomedical agendas). Discussion focuses on interactional criteria for identifying “fears”, patients’ lay orientations to medical visits, and implications for refining educational workshops for oncologists.