The role of narrative and metaphor in the cancer life story: a theoretical analysis [Book Review]

Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 16 (3):469-481 (2013)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Being diagnosed with cancer can be one of those critical incidents that negatively affect the self. Identity is threatened when physical, psychological, and social consequences of chronic illness begin to erode one’s sense of self and challenge an individual’s ability to continue to present the self he or she prefers to present to others. Based on the notion of illness trajectory and adopting a Ricoeurian narrative perspective, this theoretical paper shall explore the impact of cancer disease on identity and establish the crucial importance of metaphor in the narratives of life with cancer. Findings indicate that in cancer narratives the illness experience supplies the narrative structure with temporal and spatial meeting points that make the narrative comprehensible and meaningful. Cancer forces identity changes not only from having to endure the long-term physical and psychosocial effects of the disease, but also from inevitable existential questions about life’s meaning. Improved medical knowledge today means improved ethnomedical practices. Metaphor can bridge the gap between the cancer experience and the world of technology and treatment, helping patients to symbolically control their illness

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Commentary: Being Their Worst Nightmare: On David Perusek's “Cancer, Culture, and Individual Experience”.Arthur W. Frank - 2012 - Ethos: Journal of the Society for Psychological Anthropology 40 (4):512-516.
The wounded storyteller: body, illness, and ethics.Arthur W. Frank - 1995 - Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Cancer, Culture, and Individual Experience: Public Discourse and Personal Affliction.David Perusek - 2012 - Ethos: Journal of the Society for Psychological Anthropology 40 (4):476-506.
Cancer and the development of will.Rudy P. C. Rijke - 1985 - Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 6 (2).
Ethics of cancer management from the patient's perspective.M. G. Jolley - 1988 - Journal of Medical Ethics 14 (4):188-190.

Analytics

Added to PP
2013-12-01

Downloads
28 (#490,139)

6 months
2 (#668,348)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

Add more citations

References found in this work

Phenomenology of perception.Maurice Merleau-Ponty - 1945 - Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey: The Humanities Press. Edited by Donald A. Landes.
Phenomenology of Perception.Maurice Merleau-Ponty - 1945 - New York: Routledge. Edited by Donald A. Landes.
Sources of the self: the making of the modern identity.Charles Taylor - 1989 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Phenomenology of Perception.Maurice Merleau-Ponty - 1962 - New York: Routledge. Edited by Donald A. Landes.
Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity.Charles Taylor - 1989 - Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press.

View all 36 references / Add more references