Governing risk by conveying just enough (un)certainty: Rearticulating good doctoring as a psy-medical competence

Abstract

This chapter is an ethnographic study using participant observations and interviews to explore how clinical encounters regarding possible antibiotic prescription are handled by GPs and patients, bringing attention to among others, meaning-making, different logics, ways of thinking, and affective states involved in this process. The study shows how much can be gained from moving beyond a sheer focus on knowing as well as qualities and competencies of GPs in order to include how patients’ affective states are governed in the ‘liminal zones of uncertainty’ that arise when no clear diagnosis to be treated can be given.