ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on author's observation and participation in communication in a confined space within a corporate clinic with people whom he/she has never met before and who, like him, probably do not want to be there. Weick is an organizational psychologist whose pioneered theories about how people behave in corporate settings as they interact, succeed, and/or fail. An important part of Weick's work is his theory of "sensemaking". The chapter considers narrative to make sense out of, and extract meanings from, the author's experiences with dialysis. Clients undergoing dialysis bring all of the communication experiences they had interacting with others prior to coming for treatment. Much of the communication within the clinic is dyadic. The basic idea of sensemaking is that reality is an ongoing accomplishment that emerges from efforts to create order and to make retrospective sense of what occurs.