IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v73y2011i6p897-903.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cancer diagnosis as discursive capture: Phenomenological repercussions of being positioned within dominant constructions of cancer

Author

Listed:
  • Willig, Carla

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the phenomenological repercussions of being positioned within widely available discursive constructions of cancer. One of the many challenges of being diagnosed with cancer is that it requires the person to make sense of the diagnosis and to find meaning in their changed circumstances. From a social constructionist point of view, such meaning is made out of discursive resources which are available within one's culture. This paper critically reviews some of the dominant discourses surrounding cancer which are available within English-speaking Western industrialized cultures. It maps out the discursive positions available to those diagnosed with cancer and it traces some of their implications for how cancer may be experienced and how it may be lived with. As such, this paper is concerned with the social and psychological consequences of being positioned within dominant cancer discourses.

Suggested Citation

  • Willig, Carla, 2011. "Cancer diagnosis as discursive capture: Phenomenological repercussions of being positioned within dominant constructions of cancer," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(6), pages 897-903, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:73:y:2011:i:6:p:897-903
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953611001158
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    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. Stewart, David C. & Sullivan, Thomas J., 1982. "Illness behavior and the sick role in chronic disease : The case of multiple sclerosis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 16(15), pages 1397-1404, January.
    2. Wray, Natalie & Markovic, Milica & Manderson, Lenore, 2007. "Discourses of normality and difference: Responses to diagnosis and treatment of gynaecological cancer of Australian women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(11), pages 2260-2271, June.
    3. Reid, Janice & Ewan, Christine & Lowy, Eva, 1991. "Pilgrimage of pain: The illness experiences of women with repetition strain injury and the search for credibility," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 601-612, January.
    4. Lillrank, Annika, 2003. "Back pain and the resolution of diagnostic uncertainty in illness narratives," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(6), pages 1045-1054, September.
    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. Gøril Ursin, 2020. "Framing Dementia Care Practices: The Politics of Early Diagnosis in the Making of Care," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(3), pages 21582440209, July.
    2. Granek, Leeat & Fergus, Karen, 2012. "Resistance, agency, and liminality in women's accounts of symptom appraisal and help-seeking upon discovery of a breast irregularity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(10), pages 1753-1761.

    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. Guntram, Lisa, 2013. "“Differently normal” and “normally different”: Negotiations of female embodiment in women's accounts of ‘atypical’ sex development," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 232-238.
    2. Melander, Stina, 2023. "Different logics of pain: the gendered dimension of chronic pain in a relational setting," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 335(C).
    3. Phillips, Tarryn, 2012. "Repressive authenticity in the quest for legitimacy: Surveillance and the contested illness lawsuit," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(10), pages 1762-1768.
    4. Richardson, Jane C. & Ong, Bie Nio & Sim, Julius, 2006. "Is chronic widespread pain biographically disruptive?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 1573-1585, September.
    5. Paul Atkinson, 2009. "Illness Narratives Revisited: The Failure of Narrative Reductionism," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 14(5), pages 196-205, November.
    6. Inge M Brokerhof & Jan Fekke Ybema & P Matthijs Bal, 2020. "Illness narratives and chronic patients’ sustainable employability: The impact of positive work stories," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(2), pages 1-17, February.
    7. Madden, Sue & Sim, Julius, 2006. "Creating meaning in fibromyalgia syndrome," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(11), pages 2962-2973, December.
    8. Anne Sidenius & Lenore Manderson & Ole Mogensen & Martin Rudnicki & Lars Mikael Alling Møller & Helle Ploug Hansen, 2019. "“But this is a good cancer:” Patient perceptions of endometrial cancer in Denmark," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(1-2), pages 245-256, January.
    9. Corbett, Mandy & Foster, Nadine E. & Ong, Bie Nio, 2007. "Living with low back pain--Stories of hope and despair," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(8), pages 1584-1594, October.
    10. Dumit, Joseph, 2006. "Illnesses you have to fight to get: Facts as forces in uncertain, emergent illnesses," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 577-590, February.
    11. Watkins-Hayes, Celeste & Pittman-Gay, LaShawnDa & Beaman, Jean, 2012. "‘Dying from’ to ‘living with’: Framing institutions and the coping processes of African American women living with HIV/AIDS," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(12), pages 2028-2036.
    12. Leire Ambrosio & Juana Maria Senosiain García & Mario Riverol Fernández & Sagrario Anaut Bravo & Sara Díaz De Cerio Ayesa & María Eugenia Ursúa Sesma & Neus Caparrós & Mari Carmen Portillo, 2015. "Living with chronic illness in adults: a concept analysis," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(17-18), pages 2357-2367, September.
    13. Koekkoek, B. & Hutschemaekers, G. & van Meijel, B. & Schene, A., 2011. "How do patients come to be seen as 'difficult'?: A mixed-methods study in community mental health care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(4), pages 504-512, February.
    14. Costa, Nathalia & Mescouto, Karime & Dillon, Miriam & Olson, Rebecca & Butler, Prudence & Forbes, Roma & Setchell, Jenny, 2022. "The ubiquity of uncertainty in low back pain care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    15. Kielmann, Karina & Deshmukh, Deepali & Deshpande, Sucheta & Datye, Vinita & Porter, John & Rangan, Sheela, 2005. "Managing uncertainty around HIV/AIDS in an urban setting: Private medical providers and their patients in Pune, India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(7), pages 1540-1550, October.
    16. Sung Soo Lim, 2020. "The Effects of Chronic Illness on Aspirations and Subjective Wellbeing," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(5), pages 1771-1793, June.
    17. Karianne Oldertrøen Solli & Marjolein de Boer & Kari Nyheim Solbrække & Lisbeth Thoresen, 2019. "Male partners’ experiences of caregiving for women with cervical cancer—a qualitative study," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(5-6), pages 987-996, March.
    18. Miles, A. & Curran, H.V. & Pearce, S. & Allan, L., 2005. "Managing constraint: the experience of people with chronic pain," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 431-441, July.
    19. Whitmarsh, Ian & Davis, Arlene M. & Skinner, Debra & Bailey, Donald Jr., 2007. "A place for genetic uncertainty: Parents valuing an unknown in the meaning of disease," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(6), pages 1082-1093, September.
    20. Sim, Julius & Madden, Sue, 2008. "Illness experience in fibromyalgia syndrome: A metasynthesis of qualitative studies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 57-67, July.

    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:73:y:2011:i:6:p:897-903. 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.