Stranger Times. Heterotemporality and the Spiritual Experience of Illness
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13136/isr.v14i3.686Abstract
As highlighted in the medical humanities and narrative medicine the onset of a severe pathology constitutes a biographical disruption that on the one hand alters the patient’s temporal perspective throughout the therapeutic process, and on the other can trigger existential and spiritual questions and needs. The direct connection between temporality and spirituality in the subjective experience of illness is, however, little investigated in the sociological literature.
Based on the analysis of personal illness narratives collected through qualitative interviews using the creative technique of time-box with cancer patients in Piedmont, this article shows how the relation with the disease is inscribed as an “other” time or “heterotemporality” in the patient’s life course, producing estranging effects on identity and agentivity from which emerges a spirituality focused on time as a resource for coping with suffering. These results can provide indications for implementing spiritual care strategies in healthcare and clinical contexts.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Nicola Pannofino
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
(APC) Article and submissions processing charges
ISR does not ask for articles and submissions processing charges APC
Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following points:
- Authors retain the rights to their work and give to the journal the right of first publication of the work, simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons License. This attribution allows others to share the work, indicating the authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- The authors may enter into other agreements with non-exclusive license to distribute the published version of the work (eg. deposit it in an institutional archive or publish it in a monograph), provided to indicate that the document was first published in this journal.
- Authors can distribute their work online (eg. on their website) only after the article is published (See The Effect of Open Access).