Symptoms beyond diagnosis - a case study

Author: SKOTT, C.

Source: European Journal of Cancer Care, Volume 17, Number 6, November 2008 , pp. 549-556(8)

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Abstract:

The aim of this paper was to discuss how words for symptoms relate to experience and to find out how seriously ill patients two years after diagnosis and treatment articulated suffering. Nine patients who have had a cancer tumour of the central nervous system were interviewed in their homes and the findings were interpreted in a hermeneutic process. Bodily, obstructive, emotive and metaphorical expressions of symptoms appeared. The transformed life situation involved inability to perform everyday tasks and a feeling of frustration of needs and desires. The words for symptoms conveyed individual embodied experience connected to a discourse of shared meanings. The relationship between individuality and culture means that words for symptoms are created and understood in a process between patient and listener, between discourse, culture and history.

Keywords: symptoms; cancer; body image; cultural; communication; social

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2354.2007.00873.x