The topic of pain and its assessment in the medical context has become central in recent years, thanks in part to greater attention to the patient's experience and quality of life (patient-centered medicine), and in part to the development of chronic diseases and the extension of life expectancy.

In the face of conventional pain measurement methods, the interactional approach shows that pain assessment depends on context-specific medical goals, as well as on patients' ability to put their experience of pain into words.  

Based on the analysis of visits with amputee patients in a prosthesis reconstruction and application clinic, we show the communicative practices by which doctors and patients gradually arrive at a shared definition of the pain felt by patients.

The one-hour lecture will be followed by a discussion and a convivial moment of exchange. These conferences are open to all, with no particular prerequisites.

With : Renata GALATOLO, Associate Professor of Psychology
Department of Arts, University of Bologna, Italy
See her web page

She is a visiting professor at the ENS de Lyon at the ICAR laboratory, for two months (April/May 2025).

Recent publications: 

• Simone, M., Galatolo, R., & Fasulo, A. (2024). Haptic Resources in Pain Communication: New Amputees Redirecting Doctors’ Professional Touch at the Prosthetics Clinic. Health Communication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2024.2397614
• Margutti, P., Galatolo, M., Simone, M., & Drew, P. (2024). Proposing surgery at the prosthetic clinic: Managing patient resistance. Patient Education and Counseling. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2024.108385
• Simone, M., Mondémé, C., & Galatolo, R. (in press). Becoming a cooperating pair: blind trainees learning to interact with their guide-dogs. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders

Organisation: M. Coste, I. Colón de Carvajal, P. Lambert, E. Prak-Derrington.

Find out more about Conf Apéros on the Clé des langues website.