The aim of this study was to analyse how the patient is constructed and socially po-sitioned in Swedish patient information. Corpus-assisted critical discourse analysismethodology was utilised on a sample of 56 online patient information texts aboutcancer containing a total of 126,711 words. The findings show an overarching dis-course of informed consent guided by specific features to produce a patient normthat we name “the reasonable patient”, who is receptive to arguments, emotionallyrestrained and makes decisions based on information. Through the discourse of in-formed consent, the norm of the reasonable patient emerges, apparently to even outthe imbalance of power between patient and professional, but in reality, more likelyto construct a patient who is easily controlled and managed. When the self-respon-sibility towards health is incorporated into the everyday domestic spaces via digitalhealth technologies, the ideas and concepts of the patient role need to be reconsid-ered based on these new conditions. We conclude that it is important for nursingresearchers to broaden the research on patients to include the relationship of powercreated through language. This study demonstrates both methodological and empiri-cal possibilities to do so