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The apostolic function

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

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Michael Balint observed in 1957 that a doctor's personality interacts with medical training to produce a unique way of dealing with patients. Doctors tend to avoid examining their own behaviour and so a fixed style develops.

Balint called this the 'Apostolic Function'. This incorporates the doctor's beliefs about how patients ought to behave when ill, how they should behave with doctors and how they should cooperate in their cure.

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