[The physician-patient relationship in post-modernism].
The doctor-patient relationship represents a particular link that goes beyond formality and it is projected in time, space and emotionalism. It takes place in the midst of a cultural, social, physiological, scientific and technical context which at the same time is conditioned by local, regional, national and foreign influences as a consequence of globalization. Different ethnical groups, social stratification, economic structures, philosophical concepts, religious beliefs and moral values play a pivotal role. The technological advances have shown an exponential increase during the last forty years. This phenomenon was accompanied by deep changes that varied from philosophical to strictly technical aspects which were significatively intensified during the post Second World War period. The consequences have been unfortunate for physicians and particularly for patients. Those consequences came out by philosophical reviews, the economical liberalism and neoliberalism development, a new concept for science, the priorization of technique development together with changes in both ethical value scales and economic & politic power hegemonies. The great reports of philosophy have tried to justify these social changes. The end of modern meta discourses such as Iluminism, Idealism, and Marxism, incited the liberal and neoliberal discourse. Knowledge has been affected not only in the research field but in the teaching field as well. Today, the discourse in vogue is the performance. The "organic conjugation" of technique and profit precedes its union with science. The State disengagement in managing the great social problems in many countries, the globalization and the concentration of the capital has redefined the power. Neither the patient nor the medicine escapes from this reality. The final results are generations of physicians quite right informed but unable to solve or even face the minimum problems of a patient, and what is worst, they run the risk of feeling frustrated and resentful. Everything is thought and done through technique, and there is a fact that appears to justify this action "The malpractice judgement industry". The economical monopoly of private or sindical Healthcare Providers and self-managed Hospitals projects are rapidly and notoriously modifying the medical labour market. There seems to exist only one element that the doctor and the patient have in common in this new culture: loneliness. There is also a human communication failure that separates them: the patient is in more need of human comprehension than ever before and the doctor has a cultural inability to offer it. To sum up, the relationship between the doctor and the patient is still a theme of deep preoccupation, even more nowadays when everything seems to indicate that this relationship has suffered a significant impairment.
López Gastón
A R
AR
glopez@intramed.net.ar
D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations