The clinical subject: adolescents in a cleft-palate clinic.
- 1 November 1983
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Sociology of Health & Illness
- Vol. 5 (3) , 253-274
- https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.ep10491825
Abstract
The paper examines the format and some interactional dilemmas of outpatient consultations in a clinic for cleft lip and palate. Three problems are addressed. First, the adolescent patient's status as a 'consumer' is problematic: it is ambiguous whether they can be entrusted with decision-making on their own behalf. Second, there is the problematic status of parents' rights. Third, the policy implications of these problems are raised in relation to the conduct of 'child-centered' medicine. It is suggested that socializing the clinic may reinforce, rather than undercut, professional dominance.Keywords
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