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To the Editor: In suggesting that deep acting can compensate for the deficiency of antecedent essentials like compassion, sensitivity, and insight, Drs Larson and Yao¹ appear to agree with the wag who said, "Once you can fake sincerity, you’ve got it made." Acting methods used in emotional labor, adopted from organizational techniques of business, do little more than follow the marketplace model of medical care that regards physicians as providers and patients as consumers.

It is certainly possible to teach interviewing skills that make intelligent use of empathic statements and questions. However, this is a bit like using a foreign-language phrase book to communicate in another country. It is very helpful to be directed to a bathroom or a restaurant but much less so to understand the respondent’s native-language replies. To engage empathically with patients, physicians need more than acting and language skills.

Although the authors address some of the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Don R. Lipsitt, MD
Harvard Medical School
don_lipsitt@hms.harvard.edu
Brookline, Mass