Hermeneutical Nature of medicine and its implications: A case study of clinical empathy

In modern medicine, paraclinical findings carry out a major role in the process of diagnosis and treatment and physician decisions are largely made with the help of these findings. The expansion of these technologies has diminished the role of physician-patient dialogue, which is necessary for clinical practice. However, medicine is fundamentally a hermeneutical process that requires a common understanding between the physician and patient, which takes place in the context of clinical encounter, and therefore para-clinical findings will in no way replace the conversation with the patient; therefore, the importance of paying attention to hermeneutics in medicine is understandable. This article, as well as presenting an explanation of Gadamer's hermeneutics, analyses the process of understanding from Gadamer's point of view and argues that the hermeneutical reading of medicine, as Gadamer intends, requires attention to the Aristotelian concept of phronesis. Since empathy is necessary to achieve a common understanding, or, in Gadamer's words, a “fusion of horizons of understanding”, this article goes on to discuss empathy and introduce some of common definitions of empathy in medicine. Finally, by criticizing the common approaches to empathy, presents a phenomenological understanding of empathy by employing Lou Agosta's interpretations, and considers empathy not only as a tool to increase patient satisfaction with the physician, but also by emphasizing on conceptual fusion of hermeneutics and empathy, considers empathy as a critical and basic condition for achieving common understanding in the clinical dialogue process.