Breast cancer and its treatment have significant effects on a bodily, psychological and social level. Although there are many studies of breast cancer and its effects on women’s lives, the research literature that examines the experience of mastectomy and the meaning that women themselves attribute to it is relatively limited. This paper exploresthe experience of mastectomy in relation to social representations regarding femininity and health, which provide the context for and affect the personal meaning attributed to the experience, as well as women’sdecisions regarding treatment. The findings of a phenomenological study, based on interviews with eight women that had undergone mastectomy for breast cancer, are presented. The analysis focuses on aphenomenological description of the experience of mastectomy, whilst taking into account the fact that the female breast has particularly strong connotations of femininity, sexuality and motherhood, that is,important aspects of women’s identity. It seems that a central aspect of women’s experience of mastectomy is a sense that they are somehow ‘different’ and this sense is associated with a stigmatised identity. The ways in which women seem to manage the double stigma, associated with the identity of a cancer patient and with that of a ‘deficient’ woman, are further discussed in the paper.
This study aimed to explore how women in confinement attribute meaning to their experience in prison and, at the same time, how they (re)construct their narrative identity as they visualize their future through the use of photographs. The study was part of a broader research titled “Phototherapy in prisons”. Six imprisoned women participated in the study. The technique of photo-elicitation in interviews was adopted and women created life narrative using the medium of photo-stories . The material was analysed using narrative analysis. Through the analysis two main narrative types emerged; a restitution narrative and a partial regeneration narrative. Significant topics in the women’s life narrative included issues of responsibility, gender as a factor in women’s involvement in criminal activities, the perceptions of imprisonment and participants’ desire to distance themselves from the experience following their release from prison. The findings of this study help better understand the experience of imprisonment, taking into account the role of gender, and highlight the contribution of alternative methods of study when working with people who have limited opportunities to voice their experiences. In addition, findings provide insight regarding the design of trauma focused interventions in prison with the aim of more fully preparing the women for the transition to life in the community.
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