patient speak if he didn't say a thing, let him go? i polled my colleagues, five minutes, ten minutes, 20 minutes, forever. i would never do it with my patients. i found a study that actually did that a swiss study, doctor said what can i help you with today, the patient spoke, doctors didn't say a word, just nod. average monologue for the patient 92 seconds. hardly a deluge, tsunami we fear. i thought, okay i'm going to try this in my clinic, very next day, i did it. for every patient, i said what can i help you with. didn't say a word. took note as they spoke, and i nodded. first patient was 30 section. but they were pretty healthy. the next patient had a little bit of back pain, a minute, minute 1/2. not too bad. but then came the kicker, joe seven barth.

a teacher in her native argentina, she was saddled with a vast a ray of insolvable pains and anxiety, depression, irritable bowel conditions. the mother to take care of. observations by new york city's pretensions of culture which could never measure up to the sophistication of buenos aires. if i let her talk uninterrupted this visit would unfurl like a labyrinth. symptoms from every organ a run-down of her mother's medical ills, plus a seeming critique of the metropolitan opera of production of torando. i wouldn't be able to provide easy solutions for her symptoms. i would be forced to explain the decisions mother's doctors are artistic director of the met. both of us would be in sour mood

by the end and whole thing would turn out to be onerous mess with a opera which she would excoriate on philosophical grounds. i promised myself i would let every single patient talk today. if i eliminated so-called difficult patients my data, however informal would be flawed. i girded myself for battle and asked her how can i help you today? reluctantly clicked on the stop watch. every single thing hurt she says from my toes to my head. there are shooting pains in her gums. her scalp was painfully sensitive. next pain was radiating down her spine. her mother had insomnia. up all hours of the night complaining. etime she paused i said gamely anything else? and there always was. i'm only 45, she said, but i feel like i'm 85. every step hurts. my head feels like swollen to five times the size. like i'm walking through molasses.

i scribbled a few notes on paper while she talked and maintained eye contact the entire time. let's get everything on the table. every last symptom. then we'll figure out where to go from there. i let her keep talking until she fully, truly, absolutely come to the end of all she had to say. in silence i reached over to click off a stop watch. i estimated about eight minutes, ten minutes, transpired. but it went four minutes and 7 seconds the met had come out unscathed. i pressed urge to jump off, wow. instead i turned back to miss garth and is that everything? she nodded. i noted list on jotting down. when viewed on the page it didn't seem overwhelming. it was long but it was finite. miss garza had million dollar workup which was all negative. i explained she had something going on. medicine is very poor explaining pain syndromes, doesn't mean we

can't treat symptoms. we went down the list together. trying to identify which pains might be helped helped with piee packs. which might be treated with local heat and ma age. which might be best treated with physical therapy. which might respond to pain medications. we talked about antidepressants would be helpful and seeing a therapist could help treat her stress. we discussed treating chronic pain and wrote up a plan. at end of visit she didn't run overtime by too much. she said something, read about but never actually heard a patient legitimately say. just talking about it made me feel better. i want to jump up and sing an aria which luck cully all parties involved refrained from. i realized something else, talking it all made me feel better. >> watch this and other programs online at booktv.org.

you're watching booktv on c-span2 with top non-fiction books and authors every weekend. booktv, television for serious readers. >> here on c-span2 "the communicators" is next with economist hal singer. the future of the trump presidency and future of the press. we take you to a live forum on housing and finance policy for u.s. cities. >> c-span where history unfolds daily. in 1979 c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies. it is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. cspan: this week on "the communicators," a discussion of economic policy and the federal communications chris. our guest is hal singer.