Emotional Microaggressions

Abstract This chapter provides an overview and analysis of emotional microaggressions. In medical contexts, emotional microaggressions occur when healthcare professionals or family members fail to take patients’ emotional reactions to and experiences of their diagnoses and illnesses seriously, or when they ignore them altogether. Emotional microaggressions consist of seemingly small indignities directed at patients, frequently motivated by assumptions about what constitutes appropriate emotional responses to medical symptoms and diagnoses and often compounded by stereotypes about emotions as they relate to race, sexuality, and especially to gender. Guided by case studies of patients who are members of one or more marginalized groups, the chapter demonstrates how emotional microaggressions are harmful to patients in emotional and other ways. It also discusses the relationship between emotional microaggressions and gaslighting. Ultimately, it illustrates the severity of emotional microaggressions in medical contexts and calls upon healthcare professionals to find ways to avoid them.