Understanding Cancer Patients’ Narratives: Meaning-Making Process, Temporality, and Modal Articulation

Picione, Raffaele De Luca; Martino, Maria Luisa; Freda, Maria Francesca

doi:10.1080/10720537.2016.1227738

Cited by 41 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 33 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…At the same time, the narrative device helps explore the subjective experience and promotes transformation of the experience (McAdams, 2008; Esposito et al, 2017; Margherita et al, 2017). Thus, the device responds, in a natural way (Bruner, 1990; McAdams, 2008), to a fundamental need of the human being: to make experience of a sense of continuity and coherence of the self through the construction of stories in a specific intersubjective and cultural context (Bruner, 1990; De Luca Picione et al, 2017, 2018; Margherita and Gargiulo, 2018) reorganize and construct a form, make the future pre-figurable, and reposition one’s own identity following the onset of the diagnosis. The narrative process is an important mode of the functioning of the mind, allowing the organization and connection of different elements of the experience (such as time, space, behavior, relationships, and actions; Freda and Martino, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Underfifty Women and Breast Cancer: Narrative Markers of Meaning-Making in Traumatic Experience

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A diagnosis of breast cancer is considered a potential traumatic event associated with physical and psychological effects. In literature, an exploration of breast cancer experience in young women is lacking, able to shed light on the narrative processes of meaning-making of the experience in specific phases of treatment, as may be the initial impact with the onset of the cancer. Meaning-making processes are determinant aspects when dealing with traumatic events. The research took place at National Cancer Institute Pascale of Naples. We collected 50 ad hoc narrative interviews to explore the different domains of the experience with under-fifty women at the first phase of the hospitalization. The Narrative Interviews were analyzed through a qualitative methodology constructed ad hoc . Starting from the functions of meaning-making that the narrative mediate we have highlight the different modes to articulate the narrative functions: The Organization of Temporality: chronicled (38%), actualized (26%), suspended (18%), interrupted (16%), and confused (2%). The Search for Meaning: internalized (42%); generalized (24%); externalized (18%); suspended (16%). The Emotional Regulation: disconnected (44%), splitted (28%), pervasive (26%), and connected (2%). The Organization of self-other Relationship: supportive (46%), avoidant (22%), overturned (16%), and sacrificial (16%). The Finding Benefit: revaluating (38%), flattened (34%), and postponed (28%). The Orientation to Action: combative (38%), blocked (36%), and suspended (26%). Findings capture the impact with the onset of the cancer, identifying both risk and resource aspects. The study allows to identify a specific use of narrative device by under-fifty women who impacted with the experience of breast cancer. The ways in which meaning-making functions are articulated highlight the specificity of the first phase of the treatment of the cancer. From a clinical psychology point of view, our findings can be used as clinical narrative markers to grasp, in a diachronic way, the process of meaning-making, integration, and coping during the first phase of breast cancer experience in young women. We consider it valuable to increase longitudinal studies with young women to highlight trajectories of meaning-making during the different phases of the treatment to think about personalized intervention practices diachronically to the experience.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Underfifty Women and Breast Cancer: Narrative Markers of Meaning-Making in Traumatic Experience

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The treatment of the traumatized woman requires specific clinical work aimed at developing the ability to process traumatic affects and only an adequate tuning with the precise affective states can support the therapeutic alliance and reconstruct the sense of security threatened by the traumatic event ( Caretti et al, 2013 ; De Luca Picione et al, 2017 , 2018 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring Intimate Partner Violence and Traumatic Affect: Development of VITA, an Italian Scale

Troisi

2018

Front. Psychol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In a global context where the percentage of women who are victim of violence is still high (World Health Organization, 2013), intimate partner violence (IPV) can be considered the most widespread form of violence against women: in such cases violent attacks are perpetuated or threatened by a partner or ex-partner within an intimate relationship, which makes its recognition more difficult. IPV requires specific tools and, although the literature has highlighted the specific role played by some emotions (such as shame, guilt, and fear) that keep women experiencing this violence in a state of passivity and confusion, to date too little attention has been given to the construction of sound instruments able to detect post-traumatic affectivity. Such instruments could facilitate women who have suffered from IPV in recognizing it and in making the responses of women’s health services more sensitive and structured. This study illustrates a sequential item development process to elaborate a new self-report instrument (VITA Scale: Intimate Violence and Traumatic Affects Scale) for assessing the intensity of post-traumatic affect derived from IPV. Within a psychodynamic perspective, the scale is characterized by four affects: fear, as a state of alarm elicited by the avoidance of the danger; terror, as a paralyzing state that hinders an active process of reaction; shame as a strong exposure to the other that disarms the individual and the guilt as a defensive dimension aiming at the restoring of the link with the abusive partner. Trough specific methodological steps, a 28-item set was selected and administered to a sample of 302 Italian women who declared themselves as having suffered from IPV. Explorative and confirmatory factor analysis, as well as correlations with well-established concurrent tools were computed in order to investigate its psychometric property. A factorial structure composed of four factors, consistent with theoretical scales and a good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alphas from 0.80 to 0.90) emerged. The VITA Scale could be a useful tool for clinicians and researchers to investigate the intensity of the affective state of the woman suffered from IPV. It could be useful to better address the clinical practice and therapeutic intervention planning.

show abstract

“…Cancer patients’ narratives provide vivid evidence of such processes. ( De Luca Picione, Martino, & Freda, 2017 ; Martino, De Luca Picione, & Freda, 2016 ; Martino & Freda, 2016 ). Patients who had undergone surgery described their experiences and referred to the cutting of the skin and their wounds as a disquieting loss of borders.…”

Section: Signs and Borders As Dynamic Devices Of Plastic Sensemaking mentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychological functions of semiotic borders in sense-making: Liminality of narrative processes

Picione

Valsiner

2017

Eur. J. Psychol.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this paper we discuss the semiotic functions of the psychological borders that structure the flow of narrative processes. Each narration is always a contextual, situated and contingent process of sensemaking, made possible by the creation of borders, such as dynamic semiotic devices that are capable of connecting the past and the future, the inside and the outside, and the me with the non-me. Borders enable us to narratively construct one’s own experiences using three inherent processes: contextualization, intersubjective positioning and setting of pertinence. The narrative process – as a subjective articulation of signs in a contingent social context – involves several functions of semiotic borders: separation, differentiation, distinction-making, connection, articulation and relation-enabling. The relevant psychological aspect highlighted here is that a border is a semiotic device which is required for both maintaining stability and inducing transformation at the same time. The peculiar dynamics and the semiotic structure of borders generate a liminal space, which is characterized by instability, by a blurred space-time distinction and by ambiguities in the semantic and syntactic processes of sensemaking. The psychological processes that occur in liminal space are strongly affectively loaded, yet it is exactly the setting and activation of liminality processes that lead to novelty and creativity and enable the creation of new narrative forms.

show abstract

Understanding Cancer Patients’ Narratives: Meaning-Making Process, Temporality, and Modal Articulation

Cited by 41 publications

References 33 publications

Underfifty Women and Breast Cancer: Narrative Markers of Meaning-Making in Traumatic Experience

Underfifty Women and Breast Cancer: Narrative Markers of Meaning-Making in Traumatic Experience

Measuring Intimate Partner Violence and Traumatic Affect: Development of VITA, an Italian Scale

Psychological functions of semiotic borders in sense-making: Liminality of narrative processes

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About