Open talk in the oral discourse of reproductive medicine: Peculiarities of professional refraction

Abstract

The object of the study in this article is the materials of medical counseling by a reproductive psychologist with oocyte donors who were patients of one of the reproductive centers in Yekaterinburg. Reproductive medicine has institutionalized germ cell donation, but the medical procedure of donation (voluntary donation of oocytes by a healthy woman) is not immune to possible risks and medical consequences, so the talk of a psychologist is mandatory for female gamete donors, is part of the donation program and involves discussion of topics closed to the general audience. The linguistic relevance of the conducted study is determined by the novelty of the analyzed material, which fits into the genre of a frank conversation. The situation of psychological counseling assumes maximum openness of the donor, which is one of the conditions of successful donation. The article considers the variation of the genre in its professional refraction based on the prototypical situation of open talk and reveals the set of speech tactics used by the psychologist in the course of the conversation. To initiate a frank conversation the confidant uses metacommunicative constructions, allowing them to invite the confidant to a frank conversation. The modal focus on the confidant is accomplished through the tactics of acknowledging the personal importance of the speech partner and their moral support. Interpretive tactics of concretization, paraphrasing, inductive generalization, as a rule, construct a medial part of the frank conversation, performing the function of controlling its course. The conversational manner of selfexpression of the interlocutors demonstrates the weakening of speech control over the situation and the relaxed nature of communication. The choice of the thematic repertoire relevant to a frank conversation shows the predominance of the sphere of thematic secrecy, the sub-sphere of “thematic taboos”: first sexual experiences and psychological trauma (abortions, the death of loved ones, severe, incurable illness, etc.).