Skip to main content
Log in

Discourse, knowledge and experience of cancer: A life story

  • Published:
Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper proposes an exploration of interfaces between discourse, knowledge and experience of cancer within the life story of a patient suffering from cancer. This life story was collected in the context of a study in clinical anthropology on the cancer experience conducted within a French-speaking population of cancer patients in the province of Québec, Canada. The theoretical model was based upon the cultural hermeneutic approach of Good and Good. Perspectives for clinical practice are suggested concerning the status of popular medical knowledge in modem clinical culture, and the gap between patient experience and the discourse about cancer.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alexander, L. 1979 Clinical Anthropology: Morals and Methods. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 3:63–107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alexander, L. 1982 Illness Maintenance and the New American Sick Role. In Clinically Applied Anthropology. N.J. Chrisman and T.M. Maretzki (eds.). Pp. 351–369. Boston: Reidel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bertaux, D. 1983 Biography and Society. Berkeley, CA: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bibeau, G. 1983 The Circular Semantic Network in Ngbandi Disease Nosology. Social Science and Medicine 1513:295–307.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blumhagen, D. 1980 Hyper-Tension: A Folk Illness with a Medical Name. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 4:197–227.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. 1971 Naissance de la clinique. Paris: P.U.F., coll. Galien.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, R. 1979 Training for Uncertainty: Essays in Medical Sociology. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glaser B. and A. Strauss 1965 Awareness of Dying. Chicago: Aldine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glaser B. and A. Strauss 1968 Time for Dying. Chicago: Aldine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glaser B. and A. Strauss 1978 Anguish: The Case History of a Dying Trajectory. London: Robertson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, B. 1977 The Heart of What's the Matter: The Semantics of Illness in Iran. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 1:25–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, B. and M. DelVecchio Good 1981 The Meaning of Symptoms: A Cultural Hermeneutic Clinical Practice. In The Relevance of Social Science for Medicine. L. Eisenberg and A. Kleinman (eds.). Pp. 165–197. Boston: Reidel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helman, C. 1978 ‘Feed a Cold, Starve a Fever’ — Folk Models of Infection in an English Suburban Community and their Relation to Medical Treatment. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 2:107–137.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kleinman, A. 1980 Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKeown 1981 Les déterminants de l'état de santé des populations depuis trois siècles: le comportement, l'environnement et la médecine. In Médecine et sociétés, les années 80. Bozzini et al. (eds.). Pp. 143–177. Montréal: Albert St-Martin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poirier, J., S. Clappier Valladon and P. Raybant 1983 Les récits de vie: théorie et pratique. Paris: P.V.F..

    Google Scholar 

  • Rabinow, P. and W. M. Sullivan 1979 Interpretive Social Science: A Reader. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rabinow, P. and H. Dreyfus 1984 Michel Foucault, un parcours philosophique. Paris: Gallimard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rioux, M. 1968 Sur l'évolution des idéologies au Québec. Revue de l'Institut de sociologie l:95–124.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ricoeur, P. 1975 La Métaphore vive. Paris: Seuil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saillant, F. 1984 Mourin un processus qui débute avant la phase terminale. Santé mentale au Québec VII(l):158–160.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saillant, F. 1987 Cancer et culture: un regard anthropologique. Santé Culture Health 4(2):12–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saillant, F. 1987 Discours savoir, expérience du cancer. Santé mentale au Québec XII(2):12–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saillant, F. 1988 Cancer et culture. Produire le sens de la maladie. Montréal: St-Martin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sontag, S. 1978 Illness as Metaphor. New York: Farrar Strauss and Giroux.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, A. 1982 The Anthropology of Sickness and the Anthropology of Illness. Annual Review of Anthropology 11:257–285.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Saiillant, F. Discourse, knowledge and experience of cancer: A life story. Cult Med Psych 14, 81–104 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00046705

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00046705

Keywords

Navigation