Notions of the emotions.

The process of communication of emotional distress from patient to doctor is analysed into several components. The structure of language itself imposes certain limitations on what can be communicated. The doctor's preconceptions influence the way in which he perceives the patients' complaints. The doctor's preconceptions are bound up with his concepts of neurotic illnesses. The patient's complaints are partly determined by his concepts of emotional distress. A comparison of doctors' and patients' concepts of unpleasant emotions by means of a semantic differential technique reveals significant disparities.