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lIlness as argumentation: a prolegomenon to the rhetorical study of contestable complaints

University of British Columbia, Canada

The resources of rhetorical theory, the classical theory of persuasion, can be marshaled to help physicians evaluate patient complaints for which there is no corresponding objective evidence and which rely, therefore, on the persuasiveness of patients to be taken seriously (contestable complaints). An appropriate focus for the evaluation of such complaints is argumentation itself: what, in the absence of objective evidence of disease, counts as a good argument for a patient to be eligible for medical attention? How do patients convince physicians that they are ill and in need of care – and, conversely, how do physicians convince patients, when the need arises, that they are well and not good candidates for medical intervention? Two rhetorical concepts are especially productive for the analysis of argumentation. One is kairos, the Sophistic notion of contingency, and the other is pisteis, the Aristotelian catalogue of persuasive appeals. A focus on types of arguments directs attention away from types of patients (difficult, suspect, malingering and so on), and provides a more neutral means of judging claims to illness.

Key Words: argumentation • contested illnesses • physician–patient interaction • persuasion • rhetoric

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