This paper attempts to lay a foundation for communication in medical situations by focusing on attitudes and relationships. The medical situations are those which I have experienced as a patient, those which I have witnessed as a visiting minister, or those about which I have learned as a student. The medical situations are experiences of illness, including uncertainty and hope, changes in the lived body and the lived world, pain and suffering, death and dying.

The model of inquiry is observation, questions to clarify what is observed or inferred, and an attempt to make judgments. The scholarship is drawn from the Humanities.

The paper resists studies suggesting that communication is merely a matter of learning skills. It contends that without a stress on attitudes, skills learning tends to produce artificial, scripted communication; attention to attitudes tends to produce authentic, relational communication.

The audience is healthcare professionals and patients. Anyone interested in healthcare, however, may benefit from the material.

At the heart of medical practice lie questions that ask about the way professionals actually interact with their patients and the attitudes displayed in these interactions. The professional, then, works to understand the patient by inviting him or her to participate in the healing process.

The conclusion is that competence at communication is an indication of the health of personality and the health of personality is a foundation for effective communication. As a result of this correlation, the person who is a healthy personality and an effective communicator is always in process of learning, growing, and maturing.

Future research is needed on the hypothesis that communication is more effective if it is spontaneous rather than formulaic.