I'd forgotten about me in all of this

Discourses of self-healing, positivity and vulnerability in cancer patients' experiences of complementary and alternative medicine

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2398960
AutoresAlex Broom (0000-0003-1258-1140, The University of Sydney, autor correspondente), Nicole Cort (0000-0001-8434-5994, The University of Sydney)
Ano2009
Volume45
Fascículo1
Páginas71-87
Data de publicação2009-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1440-7833 • E-ISSN: 1741-2978
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1440783308099987
OpenAlexW2150755384
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas11
Referências citadas40

Drawing on in-depth interviews with Australian cancer patients, this article examines their experiences of utilizing complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) within disease and treatment processes. Results illustrate the complex and often contradictory roles played by CAM within patients' therapeutic trajectories. On the one hand, their accounts illustrate the liberating and positive impacts of CAM engagement, including perceived increases in feelings of control, power and individual autonomy within therapeutic processes. However, the interviews also revealed problematic notions of self-healing and hyper-positivity engendered in much CAM practice, involving the imposition of restrictive notions of self-discipline on these cancer patients. On the basis of the results it is argued that CAM sociology must refocus on the grassroots experiences of different patient groups, rather than grandiose notions of wider socio-cultural shifts in therapeutic practice

Autonomy · Epistemology · Feeling · Grassroots · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Psychotherapist · Sociology · Complementary and Alternative Medicine Studies · Gender Studies · Law · Phytochemistry Medicinal Plant Applications · Psychology · Social Psychology