Appealing to the ‘experience’ of the patient in the care of the dying

The psychological frame is used spontaneously in the accounts of their work given by staff members to the sociological field researcher, and the field researcher is inevitably a part of the functioning of the new kind of surveillance working through the psychological frame.

Abstract

The care of dying patients in hospital is characterized by the copresence of four different frames: practical, medical, lay and psychological. Within the psychological frame, the staff define the patient as an experiencing subject, exposed to the staff members' knowledge and involvement. The psychological frame is used in two different circumstances. First, it is used by the staff members when the patient deviates from an expected identity within some other frame. The deviation creates a threat to the working conditions and moral order at the ward. The threat is managed through a shift into the psychological frame. Second, the psychological frame is used spontaneously in the accounts of their work given by staff members to the sociological field researcher. The image of care associated with the field researcher is characterized by a special awareness of the psychological issues. Thus the field researcher is inevitably a part of the functioning of the new kind of surveillance working through the psychological frame.