ABSTRACT
At times, the matching of meanings and disease is so vivid that the disease appears to be communicating the meaning. The potential for the communication of meanings increases because of the manifestations in both the linguistic and the physical dimensions. This leads us to consider disease as a form of communication. The notion of disease as communication, if we accept it at all, is actually a very complicated matter. For example, if illnesses are pervaded with meaning, then inevitably they will be pervaded with issues of interpersonal relationship, because most meanings arise in the context of such relationships. The authors’ discussion of disease as communication involves exploration of other categories such as experience, meaning, thought, language, and interpersonal relationship, all of which are interdependent. Implicit in the idea of communication is the fact of a recipient for the communication, a recipient who is able and willing to recognize or accept the meaning.
