Austin Babrow and Marifran Mattson have argued that four tensions are particularly important in health communication. One is the pronounced and profound tensions and interplay between the realms of communication and the body. In addition to biochemical links between mind and body, physical disease also shapes communication, from a cry of pain to grumbling complaints and from information seeking to diagnosis and treatment seeking to support seeking; these communication acts and processes in turn influence bodily states. Moreover, these specific and local experiences of the interplay of communication and the body are shaped by historical, social, and cultural dynamics.

Four Tensions in Health Communication

The interplay of body and communication is powerfully illustrated in the processes by which physical sensations and diseases are conceptualized and labeled. ...

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