AAP News Vol. 13 No. 5 May 1997, p. 28
© 1997 American Academy of Pediatrics
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`Client encounters' sterilize relationships with patients

Jeffrey S. Penso M.D., FAAP

Not too long ago, sick patients received care from doctors and nurses in hospitals. Today providers meet clients in medical facilities for authorized encounters. These language changes have not occurred by chance. Rather they have evolved to alter the way we speak and think about health care.

Almost 50 years ago, George Orwell revealed the concept of Newspeak in his prophetic novel 1984. To Orwell, control of language was control of thought, which an all powerful Big Brother would use to maintain political dominance. In Newspeak, "vocabulary was so constructed as to give exact and often very subtle expression to every meaning" directed by the rulers, Orwell wrote.