Power in the Primary Care Medical Encounter: Domination, Resistance and Alliances

The medical encounter is a locus that mediates between the micro and macro-physics of power. The main body of research on the manifestations of power in the medical encounter emphasizes the role of the medical encounter in the reproduction of power relationships and considers the doctor-patient relationship as one of domination. The present paper proposes a different way of looking at the manifestations of power in the medical encounter. The article argues that the medical encounter is indeed a place where hegemonic relations are reproduced, but it is also a place where physician's domination is resisted, and where a productive alliance is built between the patient and the physician in order to restore the functions of the body-subject.