ABSTRACT
This chapter shows relational and intersubjective of recognition of dying, and clinical encounters strongly shaped by socio-cultural ideas around injustice, hope and a broader resistance to mortality. It discusses the point of medical futility and an emerging awareness of the lack of meaningful life-prolonging therapeutic options that poses the greatest challenge for patients and their doctors. The chapter includes explication of their own resistance to initiating discussions about palliative or end-of-life care and the dying process more broadly. It draws on their stories of clinical interactions to illustrate that interpersonal discontent and emotional subjectivities play a central role in the recognition of dying and thus pathways to the end of life. It shows the ambiguity of emotion management within the broader habitus of medical culture. Palliative and/or end-of-life care deeply entrenched in the specialists' own preferences for particular forms of interaction and interpersonal dynamics: the ideal type of doctor who manages perfectly the precarious balance between professionalism and emotionality.
