Marshall Rosenberg’s non-violent communication as the language of life in a doctor–patient relationship

The aim of the article is to present Marshall Bertrand Rosenberg’s concept of non-violent communication(NVC) and usefulness in the doctor-patient relationship. M. B. Rosenberg’s concept of NVC was basedon the assumption that a person’s natural ability is empathy directed towards other people and towardsthemselves. However, our culture suppresses these natural abilities. The language offers many expressionsthat block natural compassion because they are overfilled with moral judgments, judging comparisons,punishments, arousing feelings of guilt or shame. The author of NVC proposes a four-phase model ofempathic non-violent and non-manipulative communication, which is the basis for changes in the thoughtprocess: observing without judging, recognising, relating the feelings currently experienced to needs (values)and formulating concrete requests instead of demands

Total pain in a patient with lung cancer diagnosis

Pain is experienced by most cancer patients. According to the definition of the International Society forthe Study of Pain (IASP), pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resemblingthat associated with, actual or potential tissue damage. This very “medical” definition indicatesthat pain is a mental, subjective, sensual, emotional, and unpleasant phenomenon. In palliative care, thereis often a need for a better and deeper understanding of what “total” pain can be. The case of a youngpatient with lung cancer diagnosis presented an opportunity to describe characteristics of such pain, whichencompasses physical, mental, social and spiritual suffering