Abstact
This paper aims at exploring women’s meaningful perception, semantic understanding, and their experiences of breast cancer in a religion context. Accordingly, eight women who had one of their breasts completely removed by surgery (mastectomy) were studied by narrative interviews. In this narrative interview, participants told their life stories since the beginning of disease. Findings showed that religious concepts have a heightened role in the interpretation and understanding of disease, coping strategies, and gaining new concepts for life and death. Two main themes discovered in this research were fatalism on the one hand, and the hope and empowerment on the other. Despite the intrinsic conflict between these two concepts, religion, as a specific cultural and epistemological context, reconciles them; in a way, these polar concepts form a unitary structure of meaning and activity. In this structure, semantic coherence and concrete experience leads women with breast cancer to a new meaningful system, which shapes a new path for living well.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahmad, F., Muhammad, Mb, & Abdullah, A. A. (2011). Religion and spirituality in coping with advanced breast cancer: Perspectives from Malaysian Muslim women. Journal of Religion and Health, 50, 36–45.
Babrow, A. S., Kline, K. N., & Rawlins, W. K. (2005). Narrating problems and problematising narratives: Linking problematic integration and narrative theory in telling stories about our health. In L. M. Harter, P. M. Japp, & C. S. Beck (Eds.), Narratives, health, and healing: Communication theory, research, and practice. (pp. 31–52). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Bredle, J. M., John, M. S., Debb, S. M., Arnold, J. B., & Cella, D. (2011). Spiritual well-being as a component of health-related quality of life: The functional assessment of chronic illness therapy—spiritual well-being scale (FACIT-Sp). Religions, 2, 77–94.
Brown, B., Crawford, P., & Carter, R. (2006). Evidence-based health communication. England: Open University Press.
Dauite, C., & Lightfoot, C. (2004). Social Relational Reading. In C. Daiute & C. Lightfoot (Eds.), Narrative analysis, studying the development of individual in society (pp. 83–96). Pennsylvania: State University Press.
Frank, A. W. (2005). Foreword—stories by and about us. In L. M. Harter, M. J. Phyllis, & C. S. Beck (Eds.), Narratives, Health, and Healing & Communication Theory, Research, and Practice. (pp. xi–xiv). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Gillum, F., & Williams, C. (2009). Associations between breast cancer risk factors and religiousness in American Women in a national health survey. Journal of Religion and Health, 48, 178–188.
Gullatte, M. M., Brawley, O., Kinney, A., Powe, B., & Mooney, K. (2010). Religiosity, spirituality, and cancer fatalism beliefs on delay in breast cancer diagnosis in African American Women. Journal of Religion and Health, 49, 62–72.
Guz, H., Gursel, B., & Ozbek, N. (2010). Religious and spiritual practices among patients with cancer. Journal of Religion and Health, 51(3), 763–773.
Hare, M. (2000). The lived experience of breast cancer-related lymphoedema. Nursing Standard, 15(7), 35–39.
Harter, L. M., Japp, P. M., & Beck, C. S. (2005). Vital problematics of narrative theorizing about health and healing. In L. M. Harter, M. J. Phyllis, & C. S. Beck (Eds.), Narratives, Health, and Healing & Communication Theory, Research, and Practice, (pp. 7–29). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Holloway, I. & Freshwater, D. (2007). Narrative research in nursing. UK: Wiley-Blackwell.©10FB.
Holt, C. L., Lukwago, S. N., & Kreuter, M. W. (2003). Spirituality, breast cancer beliefs and mammography utilization among Urban African American women. Journal of Health Psychology, 8(3), 383–396.
Howard, A. F., Bottorff, J. L., Balneaves, L. G., & Grewal, S. K. (2007). Punjabi immigrant women’s breast cancer stories. Immigrant Minority Health, 9, 269–279.
Keeley, B., Wright, L., & Condit, C. M. (2009). Functions of health fatalism: Fatalistic talk as face saving, uncertainty management, stress relief and sense making. Sociology of Health & Illness, 31(5), 734–747.
Krägeloh, C. U., Minn Chai, P. P., Shepherd, D., & Billington, R. (2012). How religious coping is used relative to other coping strategies depends on the individual’s level of religiosity and spirituality. Journal of Religion and Health, 51, 1137–1151.
Lagman, R. A., Yoo, G. J., Levine, E. G., Donnell, K. A., & Holly, R. L. (2012). “Leaving it to God” Religion and spirituality among Filipina immigrant breast cancer survivors. Journal of Religion and Health, 53(2), 449–460.
Lightfoot, C. (2004). Fantastic self. A study of adolescent fictional narrative and aesthetic activity as identity work. In C. Daiute & C. Lightfoot (Eds.), Narrative analysis. Studying the development of individual in society (pp. 21–37). Pennsylvania: State University Press.
Northouse, L. L., Caffey, M., Deichelbohrer, L., Schmidt, L., Guziatek-Trojniak, L., West, Sh, et al. (1999). The quality of life of African American women with breast cancer. Research in Nursing & Health, 22, 449–460.
Olson A. M. (2005). The Narrative Construction of Breast Cancer: A Comparative Case Study of the Susan G. Komen Foundation and National Breast Cancer Coalitions Campaign Strategies, Messages, and Effects. Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation of Ohio University. Available from: http://media.cleveland.com/pdextra/other/Komen-NBCC%20dissertation.pdf (cite 15 Feb 2012).
Phoenix, A. (2008). Analysing narrative context. In M. Andrew, C. Squire, & M. Tamboukou (Eds.), Doing narrative research (pp. 64–77). London: Sage.
Ross, K., Handal, P. J., Clark, E. M., & Vander Wal, J. S. (2009). The relationship between religion and religious coping: Religious coping as a moderator between religion and adjustment. Journal of Religion and Health, 48, 454–467.
The Oxford Dictionary Online. (2013). Fatalism. Available from: http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/fatalism (cite 14 Mar 2013).
Timmons, Sh M. (2012). A Christian faith-based recovery theory: Understanding God as sponsor. Journal of Religion and Health, 51, 1152–1164.
Unterrainer, H. F., Lewis, A. J., & Fink, A. (2014). Religious/spiritual well-being, personality and mental health: A review of results and conceptual issues. Journal of Religion and Health, 53, 382–392.
Urcuyo, K. R., Boyers, A. E., Carver, Ch S, & Antoni, M. H. (2005). Finding benefit in breast cancer: Relations with personality, coping, and concurrent well-being. Psychology and Health, 20(2), 175–192.
Williams, G. (2004). Narrative of health inequality: Interpreting the determinant of health. In B. Hurwitz, T. Greenhalgh, & V. Scultans (Eds.), Narrative research in health and illness (pp. 279–291). UK: Blackwell and BMJ Books.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported with Granted (No. HP 49-90) of Health Policy Research Center (HPRC) Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. The authors would like to express their appreciation to Dr. Kamran Bagheri Lankarani, the director of Health Policy Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sadati, A.K., Lankarani, K.B., Gharibi, V. et al. Religion as an Empowerment Context in the Narrative of Women with Breast Cancer. J Relig Health 54, 1068–1079 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-014-9907-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-014-9907-2