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01-02-2007 | Perspectives

Toward a Biopsychosocial Understanding of the Patient–Physician Relationship: An Emerging Dialogue

Author: Herbert M. Adler, MD, PhD, Clinical Professor

Published in: Journal of General Internal Medicine | Issue 2/2007

Abstract

Complexity theory has been used to view the patient–physician relationship as constituted by complex responsive processes of relating. It describes an emergent, psychosocial relational process through which patients and physicians continually and reciprocally influence each other’s behavior and experience. As psychosocial responses are necessarily biopsychosocial responses, patients and physicians must likewise be influencing each other’s psychobiology. This mutual influence may be subjectively experienced as empathy, and may be skillfully employed by the clinician to directly improve the patient’s psychobiology.

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Title: Toward a Biopsychosocial Understanding of the Patient–Physician Relationship: An Emerging Dialogue
Author: Herbert M. Adler, MD, PhD, Clinical Professor
Publication date: 01-02-2007
Publisher: Springer-Verlag
Published in: Journal of General Internal Medicine / Issue 2/2007
Print ISSN: 0884-8734
Electronic ISSN: 1525-1497
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-006-0037-8

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