FACE MANAGEMENT IN MEDICAL ENCOUNTERS WITH PATIENTS DEALING WITH MENTAL HEALTH CONDITIONS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Patients, particularly those in psychiatric care, expect clinicians to respect their "face" (social self-image) during medical encounters. Despite mental health disorders being a leading cause of global disability , linguistic research on medical interactions in Nigeria has largely overlooked psychiatric discourse in favour of other clinical conditions. Because the negotiation of mental health diagnoses significantly impacts a patient's face, this study examines how face is managed during doctor-patient psychiatric sessions in Nigeria. Guided by Brown and Levinson's politeness theory and Arundale's face-constituting theory, this study examines how the face is negotiated in doctor-patient encounters in psychiatric sessions. The study employed qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate face negotiation in medical encounters with mental health patients in Nigeria. Findings reveal that conversational tokens such as “okay” and “yes” function as critical positive face markers. Furthermore, face support strategies are mainly engaged during phatic exchanges of medical interactions to establish a positive rapport with the patients, while face-stasis strategies dominate medical examinations through routine health status checks. Notably, face threats were entirely absent during  the opening phases of the encounters. The study concludes that face negotiation is a fundamental component of effective doctor-patient communication in psychiatric settings, essential for maintaining therapeutic relationships.