Reputation and Authority in the Physicians’ Communication with Patients as Reflected in the Czech-Language Sources of the Early Modern Period
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David Tomíček
Abstract
Communication with patients and their families and other close ones ranks among the major means used by doctors to build their reputation and exert their professional authority. This study concentrates on selected aspects of physicians’ communication found in Czech-language sources dating from the early modern period and also pays attention to the earlier tradition of medical literature, especially late-medieval Latin writings on physicians’ behavior toward patients. These works reflect a new phenomenon entering the market of providers of medical services -university-educated doctors. Physicians with a university degree based their professional authority on their knowledge of theoretical medicine and its close connection with natural philosophy, emphasizing its importance for proper treatment. By bolstering the impression of their professional exclusivity, they emphasized their right to receive adequate payment for their service. Given the tenuous possibilities of contemporary medicine, however, doctors had to communicate very cautiously. Although they needed to boost the patients’ belief in recovery for the sake of the successful treatment, they knew that an inadequately communicated prognosis could jeopardize their reputation. Therefore, concerning the addressees, they pragmatically modified their communication strategies so that, on the one hand, they achieved the patients’ recovery by means of their authoritative learning, and, on the other hand, they protected their reputation through their practical medical success.
Abstract
Communication with patients and their families and other close ones ranks among the major means used by doctors to build their reputation and exert their professional authority. This study concentrates on selected aspects of physicians’ communication found in Czech-language sources dating from the early modern period and also pays attention to the earlier tradition of medical literature, especially late-medieval Latin writings on physicians’ behavior toward patients. These works reflect a new phenomenon entering the market of providers of medical services -university-educated doctors. Physicians with a university degree based their professional authority on their knowledge of theoretical medicine and its close connection with natural philosophy, emphasizing its importance for proper treatment. By bolstering the impression of their professional exclusivity, they emphasized their right to receive adequate payment for their service. Given the tenuous possibilities of contemporary medicine, however, doctors had to communicate very cautiously. Although they needed to boost the patients’ belief in recovery for the sake of the successful treatment, they knew that an inadequately communicated prognosis could jeopardize their reputation. Therefore, concerning the addressees, they pragmatically modified their communication strategies so that, on the one hand, they achieved the patients’ recovery by means of their authoritative learning, and, on the other hand, they protected their reputation through their practical medical success.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Table of Contents V
- List of Illustrations IX
- Introduction: An Essay on Language, Culture, and Identity: Medieval and Early Modern Perspectives on and Approaches to Communication, Translation, and Community 1
- Ways of Communication and Mis/communication in Abū Tammām’s “Ode on the Conquest of Amorium” (838 C.E.) 95
- Proscribed Communication: The Obscene Language of the Troubadour William IX, Duke of Aquitaine and VII Count of Poitiers 109
- (Non)-Imaginary Ideal Communities in the Pre-Modern World: A Reading in the Utopian Works of al-Fārābi’, Ibn Khaldūn, Christine de Pizan, and Thomas More 159
- A Jewish Moneylender, Miscommunication, and a Lie: Gonzalo de Berceo’s Milagro no. 23 191
- Words, Signs, Meanings: William Langland’s Piers Plowman as a Window on Linguistic Chaos 209
- The Chaucerian Translator 233
- Entertainment, Laughter, and Reflections as a Training Ground for Communication in Public and Private: The Case of Heinrich Kaufringer, ca. 1400 255
- …written in my own Jewish hand 291
- Demonic Operators: Forbidden Relations in Medieval Communication 327
- Paroemiac Expressions: A Touch of Color in the Ambassadors’ Diplomatic Correspondence in the Fifteenth Century 351
- Communication and Translation in Early Modern Basque Society. The Role Played by the Public Notaries 379
- Preventing Miscommunication: Early Modern German Surgeons as Specialized Translators 393
- Reputation and Authority in the Physicians’ Communication with Patients as Reflected in the Czech-Language Sources of the Early Modern Period 415
- The Physicians’ Community in Pre-Thirty Years’ War Bohemia 439
- A Bond of True Love: Performing Courtship and Betrothal in Gower’s Cinkante balades and Spenser’s Amoretti, in Light of Christine de Pizan’s Cent balades 461
- Noble Friendship in Relation to the Community: Hamlet and The Merchant of Venice 491
- Deconstructing the (Mis)Interpretation of Paratextual Elements in Ross’s English Translation of the Qur’ān, The Alcoran of Mahomet (1649) 519
- Community and the Others: Unveiling Boundaries in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice 551
- Biographies of the Contributors 617
- Index 627
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Table of Contents V
- List of Illustrations IX
- Introduction: An Essay on Language, Culture, and Identity: Medieval and Early Modern Perspectives on and Approaches to Communication, Translation, and Community 1
- Ways of Communication and Mis/communication in Abū Tammām’s “Ode on the Conquest of Amorium” (838 C.E.) 95
- Proscribed Communication: The Obscene Language of the Troubadour William IX, Duke of Aquitaine and VII Count of Poitiers 109
- (Non)-Imaginary Ideal Communities in the Pre-Modern World: A Reading in the Utopian Works of al-Fārābi’, Ibn Khaldūn, Christine de Pizan, and Thomas More 159
- A Jewish Moneylender, Miscommunication, and a Lie: Gonzalo de Berceo’s Milagro no. 23 191
- Words, Signs, Meanings: William Langland’s Piers Plowman as a Window on Linguistic Chaos 209
- The Chaucerian Translator 233
- Entertainment, Laughter, and Reflections as a Training Ground for Communication in Public and Private: The Case of Heinrich Kaufringer, ca. 1400 255
- …written in my own Jewish hand 291
- Demonic Operators: Forbidden Relations in Medieval Communication 327
- Paroemiac Expressions: A Touch of Color in the Ambassadors’ Diplomatic Correspondence in the Fifteenth Century 351
- Communication and Translation in Early Modern Basque Society. The Role Played by the Public Notaries 379
- Preventing Miscommunication: Early Modern German Surgeons as Specialized Translators 393
- Reputation and Authority in the Physicians’ Communication with Patients as Reflected in the Czech-Language Sources of the Early Modern Period 415
- The Physicians’ Community in Pre-Thirty Years’ War Bohemia 439
- A Bond of True Love: Performing Courtship and Betrothal in Gower’s Cinkante balades and Spenser’s Amoretti, in Light of Christine de Pizan’s Cent balades 461
- Noble Friendship in Relation to the Community: Hamlet and The Merchant of Venice 491
- Deconstructing the (Mis)Interpretation of Paratextual Elements in Ross’s English Translation of the Qur’ān, The Alcoran of Mahomet (1649) 519
- Community and the Others: Unveiling Boundaries in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice 551
- Biographies of the Contributors 617
- Index 627
