Studying the experience of chronic illness through grounded theory

Abstract

To address how, when, and to what extent experiencing chronic illness assaults people’s lifeworlds, social scientists need to consider class and context as well as the relative intrusiveness of illness and effects on identity. Certainly the notion of assaults on the lifeworld suggests loss, suffering and a diminished quality of life. Assaults on the lifeworld through experiencing chronic illness in Western middle- and upper-class cultures mean loss of one’s taken-for-granted world (Berger and Luckmann, 1966; Schutz, 1970). The known world has become deeply problematic and unpredictable. In this case, assaults on the lifeworld become assaults on self and identity (Ciambrone, 2007). Assaults on the lifeworld among impoverished people can mean a relentless barrage of calamity and misfortune that chronic illness exacerbates (see, for example, Abraham, 1993; Pierret, 2007; Scheper-Hughes, 1992). A stable taken-for-granted world was never theirs to enjoy. Assaults on the lifeworld have permeated their existence. Thus, the vicissitudes of chronic illness may be blurred by overwhelming hardships of everyday life.