Holistic physicians' clinical discourse on risk: an ethnographic study

As physicians integrate complementary and alternative therapies into medical practice, they are compelled to develop new educational strategies for their patients. Therapeutic modalities whose success depends heavily upon significant behavior modification in patients require that physicians orient the latter to reconsider relationships between disease, environment, risk, and individual responsibility. This research explores the language physicians select to communicate to patients their perspectives on disease etiology and treatment as well as the importance of patients taking responsibility for changing their behavior. My data are based on fourteen months of research in a holistic medicine clinic, and they include physician interviews and observations of clinical encounters with patients. Holistic physicians often focus on diet as a major component of heath and disease, and they frequently make use of culturally relevant conceptions of risk related to food quality and environment in order to persuade patients to engage in prescribed behavior modification.