LINGUISTIC PARTICULARITIES OF MEDICAL COMMUNICATION IN PSYCHIATRY
LINGUISTIC PARTICULARITIES OF MEDICAL COMMUNICATION IN PSYCHIATRY

Summary/Abstract: Effective communication is essential in all areas of medicine, but it plays a particularly important role in psychiatry. Unlike other medical specialties that rely on objective tests and imaging for diagnosis, psychiatric evaluation largely depends on the patient’s verbal narratives. Clinicians must interpret these narratives carefully, considering both linguistic and contextual factors. Medical language represents a specialized discourse, characterized by precision, abstraction, and formalization, which allows the clinician to describe complex mental states and guide the patient through the diagnostic and therapeutic process. In psychiatry, language also has a relational and pragmatic function, establishing professional authority while facilitating trust, understanding, and patient engagement. The asymmetry of knowledge between clinician and patient requires careful adaptation of language, including reformulation, clarification, and examples, to ensure comprehension and reduce anxiety or confusion. Furthermore, the emotional and evaluative load of medical terminology can influence patients’ self-perception and social perception, highlighting the importance of analyzing psychiatric discourse from a linguistic perspective. This study provides a theoretical framework for understanding the unique features of medical language in psychiatric practice and its impact on patient communication and experience.

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