Breast cancer and the medical encounter: experiences, perceptions, negotiations and transformations of identity and feminity

[摘要] English: It is commonly thought that breast cancer, like many other cancers, is an illnessequivalent to a death sentence. Though this may be true in some cases, the majorityof women diagnosed with breast cancer do survive this illness. Breast cancer is agrowing illness and consequently is continuing to affect women worldwide, includingin developing countries like South Africa. In this dissertation, I look at how eightmiddle-class South African women experience their breast cancer diagnosis and thesubsequent treatment. I aim to understand how each participant re-negotiates andtransforms her self-perception, her 'identity and issues around femininity. I am alsointerested in seeing how the prolonged and intense medical encounter isexperienced, as well as how this encounter influences the individual in her renegotiationand transformation of 'identity and femininity.Social constructivist, social existentialist, and phenomenological approaches arecombined to highlight the rich experiences of the collected narratives. Thesenarratives are aimed at gaining a deeper insight into what a breast cancer diagnosisand its concomitant treatment entail. The main method for collecting the experiencesof the research participants is in-depth interviews. The interview schedules weredesigned to prompt the individual to expand on relevant topics for the study. Whenworking through a topic, most participants broadened their narratives by goingdeeper into their personal experiences and unique understanding by revealing morepersonal thoughts of their breast cancer journey. This in turn, led the narrativeanalysis to produce themes such as the role of religion, femininity and gender,surviving and support, maintaining normality and the medical experience. It is alsoevident that these eight women have access to state-of-the-art medical treatment,given their adherence to private medical insurance schemes. This reflects a veryspecific experience, very similar to accounts in existing literature of women in firstworldcountries who undergo a similar diagnosis and treatment.Each research participant elaborates on the self-understanding of her illness whichreflects either an optimistic or pessimistic attitude in as far as her self-concept andself-image is concerned. The participants' self-understanding and attitude (optimisticor pessimistic) are found to be closely linked to the level of support that they haveaccess to, as well as to their religious beliefs, outlooks and understandings. This is reflected in how the illness is accepted and also in their current outlook towardsfuture prospects.This study aims at humanising the illness of breast cancer through listening to thepersonal accounts of individuals who have had to experience the diagnosis andtreatment of breast cancer. Within these personal illness narratives, I aim to expandour understanding of this illness and the experience of those who were diagnosedand treated for it.

[发布机构] University of the Free State