The Sense-Making Process in Adjustment to Breast Cancer Experience in Younger Women

Abstract

The recent medical progress ensures high rates of long-term survival even in the face of illness previously with an unfortunate outcome: this is the case of breast cancer, which, to date, ensures more than 80% of long-term survival rates, and that for this reason can be interpreted as a chronic illness. In particular, the onset of breast cancer in under-50 women represents a potentially traumatic event that storms in the life of a young woman breaking the narrative sense of continuity, sameness, and integrity. This chapter discusses the role of narrative psychological devices for the understanding and the promotion of sense-making process and psychological adjustment to illness. Within a psychological risk preventive framework, the authors show findings from a longitudinal narrative research on the sense-making processes with breast cancer younger women highlighting narrative indexes of risks and resources during the first year of treatment. Implications for longitudinal support will be discussed.