"Old age doesn't come alone": discursive representations of health-in-aging in geriatric medicine.
Traditional approaches to identity across the lifespan have assumed that age itself and generational statuses and roles determine "who we can be." In contrast, a discursive perspective can show how, during interaction, we actively construct age-salient identities for ourselves and others through talk. Conversational processes of age-identity management are explored in a corpus of (United Kingdom) geriatric medical outpatient consultations. In diverse ways, doctors deny the age-relevance of medical troubles that their patients routinely endorse.
Coupland
J
J
University of Wales College of Cardiff, United Kingdom.
Coupland
N
N
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over / Q000523:psychology; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D003144:Communication Barriers; D003717:Denial, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016901:Intergenerational Relations; D008297:Male; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012803:Sick Role; D013240:Stereotyping; D014852:Wales