Possible directions of meaning in oncological disease: an experience of liminality, meaning making and existential planning
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1825-8670/11656Keywords:
oncological disease, liminality, meaning making, autopoiesis, planning oneself-in-the-diseaseAbstract
The oncological disease experience is counted as a wound in the body and mind attributable to a traumatic experience that fragments and disorients the person’s biography. The neoplasia leaves marks and scars in both somatic and existential level. The illness experience suggests to patient to look for meaning that cannot be unheard. The literature associating the concept of liminality in oncological disease to understand the process of meaning making. The definition of new horizons of meaning, generated by crossing the limen, opens up a new self-awareness and worldview. The autopoietic dimension present in oncological disease reveals new scenarios of generativity and existential planning in the direction of self-realization in the cipher of the possible. The contribution presents the story of Anastasia, a 41-years-old nurse. A few months after her new marriage and close to a professional promotion, she receives the diagnosis of cholangiocarcinoma: a very aggressive, low-incidence, neoplasia, without specific therapeutic lines and with a negative prognosis. Anastasia’s words, thoughts and emotions, collected in the course of some testimonies in a university classroom, are analyzed and deciphered within the pedagogical paradigm, refering to the perspective of pedagogical problematicism and phenomenological pedagogy.
References
Becker, G. (1997). Distrupted lives: How People Create Meaning in a Chaotic World. Berkeley (CA): University of Californa Press.
Benini, S. (2016). Reti di possibilità. Quando la pedagogia incontra le prassi sanitarie. Milano: Franco Angeli.
Bertin, G. M., Contini, M. (1983). Costruire l’esistenza. Il riscatto della ragione educativa. Roma: Armando Editore.
Bertolini, P. (1988). L’esistere pedagogico. Ragioni e limiti di una pedagogia come scienza fenomeno logicamente fondata. Firenze: La Nuova Italia.
Bertolini, P. (2001). Pedagoga Fenomenologica. Genesi, sviluppo, orizzonti. Milano: La Nuova Italia.
Blows, E., Bird, L., Seymour, J., & Cox, K. (2012). Liminality as a framework for understanding the experience of cancer survivorship: a literature review. Journal of advanced nursing, 68(10): 2155-2164. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2012.05995.x
Bobbo, N. (2020). La diagnosi educativa in sanità. Roma: Carocci Faber.
Breitbart, W. (2002). Spirituality and meaning in supportive care: Spirituality-and meaning-centered group psychotherapy interventions in advanced cancer. Supportive Care Cancer, 10(4): 272-80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s005200100289
Bruzzone, D. (2007). Ricerca di senso e cura dell’esistenza. Il contributo di Viktor E. Frankl a una pedagogia fenomenologico-esistenziale. Trento: Erickson.
Bruzzone, D. (2012). Viktor Frankl. Fondamenti psicopedagogici dell’analisi esistenziale. Roma: Carocci.
Bury, M. (1982). Chronic Illness a Biographical Disruption. Sociology of Halth&Illness, 4(2): 167-182.
Campione, F. (2000). Rivivere. L’aiuto psicologico nelle situazioni di crisi. Bologna: Clueb.
Cavana, L. (2015). La sfida dell’esemplarietà adulta: educarsi per educare. In Marescotti, E. (a cura di). Ai confini dell’educazione degli adulti (pp. 67-82). Milano: Mimesis.
Cavana, L., Casadei, R. (2016). Pedagogia come direzione. Ricerca di senso tra dinamiche esistenziali ed esigenze professionali. Roma: Aracne.
Charon, R. (2019). Medicina narrativa. Onorare le storie di malattia. Milano: Raffaello Cortina.
Contini, M. (1988). Figure di felicità. Orizzonti di senso. Firenze: La Nuova Italia.
Contini, M. (2009). Elogio dello scarto e della resistenza. Bologna: Clueb.
Contini, M., Genovese, A. (1999). Impegno e conflitto. Saggi di pedagogia problematicista. Roma: La Nuova Italia.
Cordova, M. J., Giese-Davis, J., Golant, M., Kronenwetter, C., Chang, V., & Spiegel, V. (2007). Breast cancer as trauma: Posttraumatic stress and posttraumatic growth. Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, 14: 308-319. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-007-9083-6
De Luca Picione, R., Martino M. L., Freda, M. F. (2016). Understanding Cancer Patients’ Narratives: Meaning-making Process, Temporality and Modalities. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, online first 19 ottobre 2016 – https://doi.org/10.1080/10720537.2016.1227738
Fabbri, M. (2004). Sponde. Pedagogia dei luoghi che scompaiono o che conducono lontano. Bologna: Clueb.
Frankl, V. E. (1998a). Alla ricerca di un significato della vita. Per una psicoterapia riumanizzata. Milano: Mursia.
Frankl, V. E. (1998b). Homo Patiens. Soffrire con dignità. Brescia: Ed. Queriniana.
Freda, M. F., De Luca Picione, R., Martino, M. L. (2015). Times of illness and illness of time. In L. M. Simao, D. S. Guimaraes, J. Valsiner (eds.). Temporality: Culture In The Flow Of Human Experience (pp. 209-234). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishers.
Gillies, J. & Neimeyer, R. A. (2006). Loss, grief, and the search for significance: Toward a model of meaning reconstruction in bereavement. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 19: 31-65. https://doi.org/10.1080/10720530500311182
Heiddeger, M. (1976). Essere e tempo (tit. orig. Sein und Zeit). Milano: Longanesi.
Husserl, E. (1995). L’idea della fenomenologia (tit. orig. Die Idee der Phanomenologie) Milano: Bruno Mondadori.
Husserl, E. (1976). Idee per una fenomenologia pura e per una filosofia fenomenologica. Libro secondo. Ricerche fenomenologiche sopra la costituzione (tit. orig. Ideen zu einer reinen Phanomenologie und phanomenologischen Philosophie. Zweites Buch: Phanomenologische Untersuchungen zur Konstitution). Torino: Einaudi.
Husserl, E. (1968). Ricerche logiche (tit. orig. Logische Untersuchungen). Milano: il Saggiatore.
Joseph, S., Linley, P. A. (2005). Positive adjustment to threatening events: an organismic valuing theory of growth through adversity. Review of General Psychology, 9(3): 262-80. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.9.3.262
Lee, V. (2008). The existential plight of cancer: meaning making as a concrete approach to the intangible search for meaning. Support Care Cancer, 16(7): 779-85. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-007-0396-7
Manuzzi, P. (a cura di). (2019). I corpi e la cura. Pisa: ETS.
Martino M. L., De Luca Picione R., Freda M. F. (2016). La ferita del confine: La condizione di liminalità del corpo e della psiche. La camera blu: Rivista di studi di genere, 14: 165-194. https://doi.org/10.6092/1827-9198/3916
Martino, M. L., Lemmo, D., Gargiulo, A., Barberio, D., Abate, V., Avino, F. and Tortoriello, R. (2019). Underfifty Women and Breast Cancer: Narrative Markers of Meaning-Making in Traumatic Experience. Frontiers in Psychology, 10: 618. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00618
Martino, M. L., Onorato, R., D’Oriano, V., Freda, M. F. (2013). Donne e tumore al seno: effetti del protocollo guidato di scrittura sui sintomi associati al disturbo post traumatico da stress. Psicologia della salute, 1: 125-137, https://doi.org/10.3280/PDS2013-001007
Mehnert, A. & Koch, U. (2007). Prevalence of acute and post-traumatic stress disorder and comorbid mental disorders in breast cancer patients during primary cancer care: A prospective study. Psycho-Oncology, 16: 181-188. https://doi.org/10.1002/pon.1057
Migliorino, N. (2010). Il gesto terapeutico. Forma e contatto. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
Moomal, Z. (1999). The relationship between meaning in life and mental well-being, South African Journal Psychology, 29: 36-41. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124639990200106
Murru, L., Bianchi, E., Brunelli, C., Miccinesi, G., (2013). Ricerca di senso nella malattia oncologica: l’esperienza dei gruppi di Logoterapia e analisi esistenziale. Rivista italiana di cure palliative, 15(1): 11-18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1726/3369.33447
Park, C. L. & Folkman, S. (1997). Meaning in the context of stress and coping. Review of General Psychology, 1(2): 115-144. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.1.2.115
Park, C. L. (2010). Making sense of the meaning literature: An integrative review of meaning making and its effects on adjustment to stressful life events. Psychological Bulletin, 136(2): 257-301. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018301
Rajandram R. K., Jenewein J., McGrath C., et al. (2011). Coping processes relevant to posttraumatic growth: an evidence based review. Support Care Cancer, 19(5): 583-9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-011-1105-0
Sarte, J. P. (1990). L’esistenzialimo è umanismo (tit. orig. L’existentialisme est un humanisme). Milano: Ugo Mursia Editore.
Schwartz, N. A., von Glascoe C. A., (2020). The Body in the Mirror: Breast Cancer, Liminality and Borderlands. Medical Anthropology, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2020.1775220
Sumalla, E. C., Ochoa, C. & Blanco, I. (2009). Posttraumatic growth in cancer: Reality or illusion? Clinical Psychology Review, 29: 24-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2008.09.006
Turner, V. (1986). Dal rito al teatro. Bologna: Il Mulino.
van Gennep, A. (1985). I riti di passaggio. (tit. orig. The rites of passage. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul). Milano: Bollati Boringhieri.
Visser, A., Garssen, B., Vingerhoets, A. (2010). Spirituality and wellbeing in cancer patients: a review. Psycho-oncology, 19(6): 565-72. https://doi.org/10-1002/pon.1626
Waters, T. E. A., Shallcross, J. F. & Fivush, R. (2013). The many facets of meaning-making: Comparing multiple measures of meaning-making and their relations to psychological distress. Memory, 21: 111-124. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2012.705300
World Health Organization. (1996). Cancer pain relief. Geneva: Second Edition.
Zannini, L. (2004). Il corpo paziente. Da oggetto delle cure a soggetto della relazione terapeutica. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
Zannini, L. (2008). Medical humanities e medicina narrativa. Nuove prospettive nella formazione dei professionisti della cura. Milano: Raffello Cortina Editore.
Zika, S., Chamberlain, K. On the relation between meaning in life and psychological well-being. (1992). British Journal of Psychology, 83: 133-45. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.1992.tb02429.x
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Stefano Benini
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
