Mysteries

Journeys

Stories of Young Adult Cancer:Therapeutic Plots & their Limits

Chad Hammond, Dr. Ulrich Teucher1

1Dept. of Psychology, U of S

Battles

Contact: chad.hammond@usask.ca

• Many young adults told war stories and used battle metaphors

• Patients saw themselves as ‘heroes’ who along with family, physicians, and other ‘allies’, fought against a common enemy

• Battle plots emphasized courage, aggression, and anger

• They presented patients as being proactive and having control of their situations

• These are common images found in medical discourses (e.g., the “Cobalt Bomb”) and in popular discourses (e.g., the war on drugs)

• May also draw on dominant notions of teenhood and young adulthood (e.g., a time of “turmoil” or “upheaval”)

• Thus, battle stories may be readily available plots for helping oneself and others to make sense of cancer

• However, battle plots are limited in that they position the hero to win in the end, which can invite judgment of chronic or terminal patients as ‘giving up’ and ‘losing the battle’

• Also, showing other emotions (e.g., fear, doubt, and anxiety) are not accepted into ‘courageous’ language

• Beside the healthcare ‘authorities’, they tried to solve the ‘puzzle’ of their symptoms and locate the ‘suspect’

• This pursuit was sometimes quick and the suspect was caught early, while other times diagnosis was delayed

• Often in oncology literature, delays are seen to result from young adults’ procrastination or non-compliance

• Some young adults’ stories suggest that some medical judgments get in the way as well (e.g., that young people don’t get sick, don’t know their bodies, are hypochondriac, etc.)

• Although informative in this way, not all problems in cancer are solvable and may conflict with pop mysteries where all questions get answered in the end

• Some young adults made use of mystery plots, often when telling about the onset of symptoms and prior to diagnosis

• Build on popular movie/book genres• Often their stories carried a mood of

fear, suspense, and uncertainty • They saw themselves as a (potential)

victim of a conniving plot• Their symptoms served as ‘clues’ to

the threat on their lives

• This is a sample of different plots used by young adults

• With only 21 participants, we can still learn about the therapeutics of these different plots

• For example, they may express felt emotions, help in meaning-making, make cancer intelligible to others, and set up favourable or hopeful endings

• However, each plot can be limited by normalizing a select few among a wide range of cancer experiences

• Many young adults also talked about their cancer experiences as journeys

• There is a heroism of perseverance to these stories, which is different than the heroism of aggression in battles

• Often, patients talked about entering a ‘new world’, expressing feelings of fear, uncertainty, and estrangement, but also hope, appreciation, and edification

• Journeys sometimes express less hostile relations between patient and his or her cancer (e.g., as a teacher, a test, a challenge to values, etc.)

• On the other hand, social expectations to gain something from one’s suffering (e.g., a lesson) may bother people who see cancer as meaningless pain

Conclusions