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9780761964759 Academic Inspection Copy

Communicating Health and Illness

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This accessible book provides a cogent review of the literature on discourse analysis as it pertains to medical and health matters. It demonstrates the centrality of discourse analysis to an understanding of health and communication. Introducing original research from his own studies, Richard Gwyn focuses on language and communication issues. He shows that it is possible to observe and analyze patterns in the ways in which health and illness are represented and articulated by both health professionals and lay people. Discourse, Health and Illness: * explores culturally validated notions of health and sickness and the medicalization of illness * surveys media representations of health and illness * considers the metaphoric nature of talk about illness * contributes to the ongoing debate in relation to narrative based medicine The book is vividly illustrated throughout with examples from the author's own research.
Richard Gwyn is Lecturer and Co-ordinator at the Health Communication Research Centre, Cardiff University
Introduction The Body, Disease and Discourse `Lay' Talk about Illness Power, Asymmetry and Decision-Making in Medical Encounters The Media, Expert Opinion and Health Scares Metaphors of Sickness and Recovery Narrative and the Voicing of Illness Conclusion
`There has been a pressing need for a book like this for some time. Gwyn cogently reviews the literature on discourse analysis as it pertains to medical and health matters. Introducing original research from his own studies allows him to vividly illustrate just how important it is to understand the role played by discourse. Students of health communication and the sociology of health and illness will find this book integral to their studies' - Deborah Lupton "It raises a number of thorny issues concerning what communication is, or might be, for embodied people... I enjoyed reading this book and it goes on my shelf in the knowledge that I shall reach for it again. It also becomes a key reference on my list of recommendations for students taking my 'health and illness' course... it deserves to be read as an excellent review of the field at present." -- European Journal of Communication
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