IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v151y2016icp121-129.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A new normal?: Women's experiences of biographical disruption and liminality following treatment for early stage breast cancer

Author

Listed:
  • Trusson, Diane
  • Pilnick, Alison
  • Roy, Srila

Abstract

Increasing numbers of women are surviving breast cancer, but little is known about the long-term implications of having survived a life-threatening illness and living with embodied reminders of its potential to return. Twenty-four women aged between 42 and 80 (median = 51)who had been treated for early stage breast cancer in the UK between 6 months and 29 years previously, were recruited through local media and interviewed. Analysis of their narratives revealed challenges in the post-treatment period that were conceptualised as biographical disruption and liminality. Although no longer ill, an ongoing fear of recurrence combined with embodied changes prevented a return to ‘normal’ i.e. a pre-cancer state in terms of health status, identity and relationships. We argue that following the biographical disruption of breast cancer, a ‘new normal’ entails a continual renegotiation of identities, daily lives and futures as time passes and lives evolve.

Suggested Citation

  • Trusson, Diane & Pilnick, Alison & Roy, Srila, 2016. "A new normal?: Women's experiences of biographical disruption and liminality following treatment for early stage breast cancer," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 121-129.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:151:y:2016:i:c:p:121-129
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.01.011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953616300119
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.01.011?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Conrad, Peter, 1990. "Qualitative research on chronic illness: A commentary on method and conceptual development," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 1257-1263, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tan, Catherine D., 2018. "“I'm a normal autistic person, not an abnormal neurotypical”: Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis as biographical illumination," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 161-167.
    2. Engman, Athena, 2019. "Embodiment and the foundation of biographical disruption," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 120-127.
    3. Jae-Mahn Shim, 2022. "Patient Agency: Manifestations of Individual Agency Among People With Health Problems," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(1), pages 21582440221, March.
    4. Smit, Anri & Coetzee, Bronwynè Jo’sean & Roomaney, Rizwana & Bradshaw, Melissa & Swartz, Leslie, 2019. "Women's stories of living with breast cancer: A systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 231-245.
    5. Saunders, Benjamin & Bartlam, Bernadette & Artus, Majid & Konstantinou, Kika, 2018. "Biographical suspension and liminality of Self in accounts of severe sciatica," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 28-36.
    6. Boardman, Felicity & Clark, Corinna, 2022. "‘We're kind of like genetic nomads': Parents' experiences of biographical disruption and uncertainty following in/conclusive results from newborn cystic fibrosis screening," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    7. Pamela Page & Alan Simpson & Lisa Reynolds, 2019. "Constructing a grounded theory of critical illness survivorship: The dualistic worlds of survivors and family members," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(3-4), pages 603-614, February.
    8. Grant J McGeechan & Kerri E McPherson & Karen Roberts, 2018. "An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the experience of living with colorectal cancer as a chronic illness," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(15-16), pages 3148-3156, August.
    9. Weckesser, Annalise & Denny, Elaine, 2017. "Re-working biographies: Women's narratives of pregnancy whilst living with epilepsy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 110-117.
    10. Lowton, Karen & Hiley, Chris & Higgs, Paul, 2017. "Constructing embodied identity in a ‘new’ ageing population: A qualitative study of the pioneer cohort of childhood liver transplant recipients in the UK," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 1-9.
    11. Cluley, Victoria & Burton, James O & Quann, Niamh & Hull, Katherine L & Eborall, Helen, 2023. "Biographical dialectics: The ongoing and creative problem solving required to negotiate the biographical disruption of chronic illness," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 325(C).
    12. Standing, Holly C. & Rapley, Tim & MacGowan, Guy A. & Exley, Catherine, 2017. "‘Being’ a ventricular assist device recipient: A liminal existence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 141-148.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aujoulat, Isabelle & Marcolongo, Renzo & Bonadiman, Leopoldo & Deccache, Alain, 2008. "Reconsidering patient empowerment in chronic illness: A critique of models of self-efficacy and bodily control," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(5), pages 1228-1239, March.
    2. Watt, Melissa H. & Maman, Suzanne & Earp, Jo Anne & Eng, Eugenia & Setel, Philip W. & Golin, Carol E. & Jacobson, Mark, 2009. ""It's all the time in my mind": Facilitators of adherence to antiretroviral therapy in a Tanzanian setting," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(10), pages 1793-1800, May.
    3. Hansen, Ulla Møller & Cleal, Bryan & Willaing, Ingrid & Tjørnhøj-Thomsen, Tine, 2018. "Managing type 1 diabetes in the context of work life: A matter of containment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 219(C), pages 70-77.
    4. Gately, Claire & Rogers, Anne & Sanders, Caroline, 2007. "Re-thinking the relationship between long-term condition self-management education and the utilisation of health services," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(5), pages 934-945, September.
    5. de-Graft Aikins, Ama, 2006. "Reframing applied disease stigma research: a multilevel analysis of diabetes stigma in Ghana," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 49551, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Kathy Charmaz & Virginia Olesen, 1997. "Ethnographic Research in Medical Sociology," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 25(4), pages 452-494, May.
    7. Dassieu, Lise & Kaboré, Jean-Luc & Choinière, Manon & Arruda, Nelson & Roy, Élise, 2020. "Painful lives: Chronic pain experience among people who use illicit drugs in Montreal (Canada)," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    8. Russell, Steven & Seeley, Janet, 2010. "The transition to living with HIV as a chronic condition in rural Uganda: Working to create order and control when on antiretroviral therapy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 375-382, February.
    9. Kholoud T. Hilal & Safiyyah R. Scott & Nina Maadad, 2015. "The Political, Socio-economic and Sociocultural Impacts of the King Abdullah Scholarship Program (KASP) on Saudi Arabia," International Journal of Higher Education, Sciedu Press, vol. 4(1), pages 254-254, February.
    10. Sandra K. Plach & Patricia E. Stevens & Vicki A. Moss, 2004. "Corporeality," Clinical Nursing Research, , vol. 13(2), pages 137-155, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:151:y:2016:i:c:p:121-129. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.