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

Trusson, Diane, Pilnick, Alison and Roy, Srila (2016) A new normal?: women's experiences of biographical disruption and liminality following treatment for early stage breast cancer. Social Science & Medicine, 151 . pp. 121-129. ISSN 0277-9536

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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 1/4 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.

Item Type: Article
RIS ID: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/978710
Keywords: UK; Breast cancer; Biographical disruption; Liminality; Post-treatment; ‘New normal’
Schools/Departments: University of Nottingham, UK > Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Sociology and Social Policy
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.01.011
Depositing User: Eprints, Support
Date Deposited: 25 Apr 2016 09:21
Last Modified: 04 May 2020 20:04
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/32874

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