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Toward a Biopsychosocial Understanding of the Patient–Physician Relationship: An Emerging Dialogue

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Complexity theory has been used to view the patient–physician relationship as constituted by complex responsive processes of relating. It describes an emergent, psychosocial relational process through which patients and physicians continually and reciprocally influence each other’s behavior and experience. As psychosocial responses are necessarily biopsychosocial responses, patients and physicians must likewise be influencing each other’s psychobiology. This mutual influence may be subjectively experienced as empathy, and may be skillfully employed by the clinician to directly improve the patient’s psychobiology.

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Acknowledgments

I acknowledge with gratitude the critical readings provided by Richard L. Epstein, MD, MPH, Fred W. Markham, Jr., MD, Robert L. Perkel, MD, and Howard K. Rabinowitz, MD, the editorial assistance of Jennifer Kearney-Strouse, ELS, and Richard M. Frankel, PhD for the emergent dialogue that contributed to this paper.

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  1. Department of Family Medicine, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Herbert M. Adler MD, PhD, Clinical Professor

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Jefferson Medical College, 1015 Chestnut Street Suite 1000, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, USA

    Herbert M. Adler MD, PhD, Clinical Professor

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Correspondence to Herbert M. Adler MD, PhD, Clinical Professor.

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Adler, H.M. Toward a Biopsychosocial Understanding of the Patient–Physician Relationship: An Emerging Dialogue. J GEN INTERN MED 22, 280–285 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-006-0037-8

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