The clinical method of general practice

Abstract

General practice is situated close to the everyday life of the population, and close to the individual patient. Limitations of the biomedical perspective become obvious due to the individuality of the patients' experiences of symptoms and disease, and due to the high prevalence of symptoms without disease. General practice has to face this situation methodically, all through the steps of symptom analysis, diagnostic procedures, and treatment. The significant element of the clinical method is the recognition of clinical practice as an inter0human activity with very practical aims. Within the perspective of this method, symptoms turn out to be symptom presentations, professional objectivity to be an individual readiness to understand, and the patient a responsible individual to be understood and to be invited to become an active party in the process of diagnosis and treatment.