Exploring pharmaceutical communication

According to Cameron (2007), ‘there is no such thing as a neutral language – but in any given time and place, some ways of talking will be more powerful and more consequential than others.’ This was recognised in 1948 when Morgan (1954) contended that for want of a common speech, jargon trapped specialists within their own areas of knowledge, ‘… and knowledge itself has grown farther and farther away from language.’

Jargon is an effective means of smuggling rubbish beneath the critical radar of unsuspecting readers and listeners. This was confirmed by Cyr and Lanthier (2007) who wrote a superbly written piece of nonsense on abolishing the law of gravity, and which demonstrated the authors' belief that ‘… using technological, statistical and medical jargon gives us the opportunity to defy the laws of physics, mathematics and medicine.’