Abstract

This article is based on qualitative research of one “case”; the narrative representation of a disease process experienced by physician and patient. The diagnosis remained unknown and the condition of the patient deteriorated drastically. Their meanings attached to this affliction can help us discovering underlying patterns of uncertainty during a disease process. Uncertainty was point of departure and the shared disease process its main focus. What follows is a description of uncertainty through different stages of it. We have discovered four phases of uncertainty: the setting (place), encountering the other (an unknown person/ stranger), the search for diagnosis (acute uncertainty), and prognosis/future (the chronic uncertainty). These four stages have been set out on a time axis; past – present – future. Uncertainty has also a space connotation, that of the social space between patient or physician (shared or unspoken).

How to Cite:

Verbergt, G. & Geens, K., (2008) “Gedeelde onzekerheid: een insiderperspectief tijdens een ziekteproces”, Tijdschrift voor Sociologie 29(2-3), 301–312. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/sociologos.86710