Advantages Of Dialogue Is Better Than Monologue

III Dialogue is better than monologue. A plurality of narratives

When it comes to the physician-patient relation, the dialogue occurs among non-intimate interlocutors. An ad hoc narrative ensues then. Details are chosen on the ground of what is deemed relevant for the sake of the encounter. Sometimes, “a focus on the patient’s autobiography silences all other members in her family” and this can be as spontaneous as dangerous. Not only the risk of absorbing a single point of view implies the loss of important features that can come from others’ stories, but absolutizing one’s perspective is not fruitful in a strict sense. Of course, the patient knows better than others what she is going through, but her opinion might also be blurred by many other feelings, motives, and desires. For instance, the desire to make a good impression and “trying to be a good patient” in the doctor’s eyes, and to her family and closest friends. Sometimes, this is the last chance they feel they have “to do a good job” and perform well.

The problems lying in the one-sidedness of a story are possible to overcome. Instead of relying on just one version of

The distinction between imagination, thoughts and actions is mostly perceived in storytelling. There is a point in the quite recent increasing marketization of stories for commercial and profit-oriented purposes. A critical mind should be trained not only to confer credibility to what has heard, but to filter it, with no prejudice but with care and attention. This is just to say that the multiplicity of tales is something we cope with in everyday life, and there is nothing special in it. But, the way we accommodate different voices does change our attitude. There is a nuance in theories on communication that maintains that there is a parallelism between how thoughts affect discourses, and its reverse, how discourses affect thoughts. Communication is dialectical, when