ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to problematize the issue of context in professional-patient communication from a discourse analysis perspective. After critically reviewing relevant literature on “context” in doctor-patient interaction, communication in public healthcare settings is analyzed as being shaped not only by the historical and political processes of institutionalization of psychoanalysis and psychiatry in public health in Argentina but also by local professional-patient interaction. To do this, I analyze the conversational construction of situation as a process which is co-driven by all participants and therefore depends upon reciprocity and mutual adjustment in: a) the definition of the space of interaction through gaze direction and agenda setting; and b) the negotiation of the activity and the roles of the participants. I will also show what happens when there is a maladjustment between participants and the demand of mental healthcare cannot be satisfied.
