A course to teach students how to interview medical patients, to allow for discussion of student concerns about entering into clinical work, and to make students aware of the complex psychosocial factors related to medical illness is described. (MLW)

After discussing the rhetorical nature of physician/patient interactions, this paper describes and analyzes six medical interviews to illustrate the evolution of interpersonal and role relationships between physicians and patients, the sorts of information that are shared, and the way problems are resolved. The interviews that are described…

Emphasizes the usefulness of integrating communicative and literary analyses to study the symbolic and pragmatic aspects of human relationships. Describes a health care course that teaches practitioner-patient communication through the application of communication theory to literary "case studies." Uses a scene from "The Elephant…