Potential for Intercultural Conflict 11
of clients that practitioners unconditionally accepted and respected them. On the other
hand, patients expressed that their interactions with biomedical practitioners lacked all or
most of these features, leading to feelings of alienation and frustration.
The second expectation for those holding holistic EMs was educational, and
patients were not only proactive in seeking out concrete ways to deal with their illness,
they also relied on practitioners to educate them on a variety of health related topics. A
significant amount of time was spent on individualized instruction of patients, who were
taught awareness of the myriad of factors affecting their health, and ways in which
treatments were expected to work. Holistic practitioners also lent and suggested books
and other educational materials to clients so that they could learn on their own.
Research shows (Coco & Mainous, 2005; Ogden et. al., 2004) that biomedical physicians
spend on average from 9 to 14 minutes with patients, making in-depth health instruction
next to impossible.
A final expectation of the medical encounter for those with holistic EMs was to
share control of the interaction and to equalize power in the relationship. Relational
control refers to “the right to define, direct, and delimit that dyad’s actions and
interactions” via specific communication patterns (Cline & McKenzie, 1998, p. 60).
Notably absent in discussions of holistic medical encounters were mentions of verbal
control tactics such as interruptions, dominating talk time, exclusive use of closed or
forced choice questions, changing topics, ignoring questions, or terse responses ---
although clients did mention these tactics when they described their interactions with
biomedical practitioners. Hardesty (1988) explained that when trust is absent in the
Convention