I luoghi del malinteso nella cultura e nella cura

This article focuses on cultural misunderstanding in care relations, starting from the analysis of the effects misunderstanding causes in the relation between doctor and migrant patient. The Western medical model tends to be based on objective data, which can be diagnosed through more and more precise and detailed techniques, but it excludes from care relations human and cultural aspects of subjectivity and relation. This exclusion creates distance, which increases when doctor and patient do not share a cultural homogeneity but differ for their language and the way they conceive their body, health, disease. By showing some clinical examples, this contribution points out how specialized competence can cause dark areas of obscurity, disagreement and misunderstanding, although being successful in many distressing situations. The interpretation of misunderstanding in the field of healthcare delimits our observation to disease, treatment, the relation between doctor and patient, but the identification and comprehension of misunderstanding are possible also focusing our attention on the organizational and institutional environment where misunderstanding takes place.