Revealed identity: a study of the process of genetic counselling

David Armstrong, Susan Michie and Theresa Marteau

Social Science & Medicine, 1998, vol. 47, issue 11, 1653-1658

Abstract: This paper describes a qualitative study of the processes employed within a genetic counselling consultation. These processes, it is argued, can be seen to provide the patient with a genetic identity. But unlike the new identity conferred by the diagnosis of many chronic medical conditions a genetic identity is presented as an old one that is now revealed. This represents a reversal of the stigmatising process: instead of a spoiled identity replacing an actual one, the genetic consultation involves revealing an actual identity in the place of a previously presumed one. In this way, genetic counselling reconstructs identity in the past as well as in the future.

Keywords: genetic; counselling; genetic; risk (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1998
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