Social Construction of Illness

Abstract

There is no question that a diagnosis of cancer has a significant impact on anyone, however, certain aspects of American culture and particularly the medical culture exacerbate the impact. This article supports the notion that a woman's experience of cancer is, at least in part, socially constructed, political in nature, and therefore, uniquely disempowering to women. Those cultural forces affecting women with cancer include the stigma, the socially-embedded self-definitions, and the practices that dominate the medical-industrial complex. This article demonstrates how the use of social constructivist therapy can assist women in disengaging from these cultural forces while engaging in new ways of thinking and behaving that, in empirical studies, have resulted in decreased progression of disease, longer survival rates, and more effective coping with cancer.

Key Words:

• Cancer
• empowerment
• social constructivism
• therapy and illness