ABSTRACT
The misunderstandings that occur between doctors and patients also pertain to what can be called a cognitive discrepancy, to account for the heterogeneity of registers each parties refers to, especially in terms of the prognosis. One of the causes of such misunderstandings is doctors over-interpreting patients’ discourses, which are rendered more ambiguous by the difficulties they face in evaluating the need for a treatment and its urgency, and in choosing one option over another. The misunderstanding between ‘progression’ and ‘regression’ is the same as that between ‘negative’ and ‘positive’. Although real changes have been made in the doctor-patient relationship and patients have been encouraged to perceive themselves are consumers with rights, and tensions and contradictions persist in this relationship between paternalism and the patient’s right to autonomy. Patients feel great satisfaction when they receive precise information on their disease and can then go on to explain their condition to their close circle.
