Taking charge of breast cancer / Julia A. Ericksen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ericksen, Julia A., 1941-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Breast--Cancer--Patients--Interviews.

Breast.

Breast--Cancer--Psychological aspects.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (334 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Vividly showcasing diverse voices and experiences, this book illuminates an all-too-common experience by exploring how women respond to a diagnosis of breast cancer. Drawing from interviews in which women describe their journeys from diagnosis through treatment and recovery, Julia A. Ericksen explores topics ranging from women's trust in their doctors to their feelings about appearance and sexuality. She includes the experiences of women who do not put their faith in traditional medicine as well as those who do, and she takes a look at the long-term consequences of this disease. What emerges from her powerful and often moving account is a compelling picture of how cultural messages about breast cancer shape women's ideas about their illness, how breast cancer affects their relationships with friends and family, why some of them become activists, and more. Ericksen, herself a breast cancer survivor, has written an accessible book that reveals much about the ways in which we narrate our illnesses and about how these narratives shape the paths we travel once diagnosed.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Tables

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Telling Stories

2. Following the Doctors' Orders

3. Patients and Doctors as Partners

4. Faith in the Ultimate Authority

5. Opposing the Mainstream

6. The Assault on the Breast

7. Bodies after Cancer

8. Breast Cancer Activism, Education, and Support

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 293-306) and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

9786611385675

9780520941182

0520941187

9781281385673

1281385670

OCLC:

437212131