“I’m as old as I am, I suppose”: interpretative cooperation in medical communication with older adults

In this article, we argue that semiotic guerrilla warfare between two dominant discourses – the discourse of power, as shown in official statements, and the discourse of professional crisis, expressed by health professionals – leads to ignoring the voices and experiences of the most vulnerable. Older adults, in particular, become passive objects rather than active subjects of meaning, and lose their interpretive presence in shaping public meanings. The St. Pantelimon Hospital case, from this perspective, shows a breakdown in cooperative interpretation and highlights a deeper divide in public discourse between professional responsibility and institutional power. Drawing on Eco’s theory of interpretation and Kristeva’s patient-centered interpretive model, the article proposes a framework for interpretive cooperation and benevolent listening as the foundations of a more human-centered medical culture.