“People Don't Understand That It Is Not Easy Being a Cancer Survivor”: Communicating and Negotiating Identity Throughout Cancer Survivorship

Abstract

Identity challenges among people coping with illness have been widely recognized in the literature and much of this work specifically highlights the changing nature of patients’ identities throughout an illness experience. The current study bolsters research on identity in illness by focusing on how cancer survivors and their partners communicate about identity after treatment completion. Exploring individuals’ experiences with identity after cancer treatment provides a unique context in which to study how illness-related identities may shift even after illness is out of the body. One-on-one interviews with 35 cancer survivors and 25 partners were conducted. Participants reported having three potentially different identities that may shift throughout survivorship: old (precancer) identity, patient (during treatment) identity, and new (postcancer) identity. Survivors also described a number of challenges and strategies relating to their identity-related conversations with social network members. Results are discussed in terms of the communicative, relational, and practical implications these data have on the complicated and changing aspects of identity throughout cancer survivorship.

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Notes on contributors

Laura E. Miller

Laura E. Miller, School of Communication Studies, University of Tennessee.