Hemligt och hemlikt

Professionella samtal i bostaden

Abstract

The article takes its departure from the tradition of research on institutional discourse, conversations between experts and clients in settings like hospitals, social welfare bureaus/offices, courts etc. In the reformed care for people with psychiatric disorders, a new kind of expert-client communication occurs, namely in the home of the client. The article discusses how features in communicative context such as discursive dominance, social control, and power relations change when the counterparts leave the structured environment of the hospital and enter the living room of the client.