The doctor-patient relation is discussed in this paper based on three analytic elements: 1) the consulting room as a place where what occurs, predominantly, is medical practice; 2) the scientific rationality of the biological mold that shapes the near-totality of the theoretical basis of this know-how; and 3) the structural and circumstantial issues that organize the professional practice of physicians. Assessing this relation within the context of the central dimension of medical practice, the author indicates that overcoming the boundaries defined by these elements calls for a different kind of professional practice and for the broadening of its theoretical basis, so as to establish a relationship between the physician and his patient based on a different value and a different meaning.
Doctor-patient relations; Medicine; Health; societies; conducts in medical practice