Revealed identity: A study of the process of genetic counselling

This paper describes a qualitative study of the processes employed within a generic counselling consultation. These processes, it is argued, can be seen to provide the patient with a genetic identity. But unlike the new identity conferred by the diagnosis of many chronic medical conditions a genetic identity is presented as an old one that is now revealed. This represents a reversal of the stigmatising process: instead of a spoiled identity replacing an actual one, the genetic consultation involves revealing an actual identity in the place of a previously presumed one. In this way, genetic counselling reconstructs identity in the past as well as in the future. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.