Language and Communication for Health Professionals

The existing literature tends to focus upon language deficits and "problem" situations such as dysphasia, or tackles language instrumentally, as in the extensive literature on counselling and communication. This book analyzes language and language use within a broad social and professional context, provides an accessible and wide-ranging analysis of the role of language in the health professions. The author establishes the importance of language as a carrier of values and attitudes, and an expression of power. He examines the use of language in relation to forms of oppression such as racism, sexism and ageism, and analyses the role language plays in constructing identity, at both the personal and group level. The implications of sociological and sociolinguistic analysis for practice are developed and the policy implications arising from the broader perspective on the significance of language are also considered.