The Work of the Interpreter in Announcement Consultation: Case Study

Announcing a cancer diagnosis requires a specific environment, even more so in the case of non-French-speaking migrants. In this context, the presence of a translator brings about another set of concerns and considerations: What is their place in this situation? How does their presence influence the communication between the doctor and the patient? Translating the diagnosis means announcing it to a patient who hears it for the first time, resulting in an emotional impact on the interpreter that is poorly studied in extant literature. From the simultaneous experience of the psychologist and interpreter, the authors analyze the singularity of this experience and its ensuing effects when an Armenian woman is diagnosed with cancer.