Illness and Object Relations: Narratives From Women With Pulmonary Hypertension

Abstract

Objectives The current research study aims at investigating the illness experience of people affected by Pulmonary Hypertension (PH), as a particularly challenging rare disease that is paradigmatic for the understanding of regulatory processes. Methods The study used Giorgi’s method to analyze the illness narratives of 11 adult Italian women affected by PH according to a qualitative phenomenological approach. An object relations perspective looking at chronic illness as an internal object was adopted for result interpretation. Results Four general themes were identified that characterize illness narratives of people with PH and illustrate the progressive stages of the disease. They respectively deal with the body/mind disruption at symptom onset, the protagonization of illness in the search for a diagnosis, the complicated grief at the time of diagnosis, and the anaclitic strategies to face the future. Conclusion Findings make a significant contribution to the exploration of the subjective experience of people with PH in managing illness-related challenges from symptom onset to after diagnosis.