Femmes et cancer: imaginaire de la maladie et culture hospitalière

Abstract

The individual hit by a cancer is forced into thinking of the unthinkable: his own death. At the very moment when the serious illness is announced, his vision of the world, of others and himself gets shattered. Nevertheless most of the time ill persons refuse the chaos induced by the arrival of cancer in their life. In the end, among the women we met for this research work, we observe that a reconstruction of the actual world is only possible through the setting of a narration. The process of naming the origins of the illness helps to the reconstruction of the actual world by way of a symbolization of the illness and of its consequences. Then the body, the ill organs and the illness itself are a ground for symbols. The nursing staff also appeal to that dimension of the body and Illness, most of the time in spite of themselves, without fully realizing it. The question is: does the culture of women hit by gynaecological cancer ever meet « hospital culture »?