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Chronic illness as biographical disruption or biographical disruption as chronic illness? Reflections on a core concept.
- Source :
-
Sociology of Health & Illness . Jan2000, Vol. 22 Issue 1, p40-67. 28p. - Publication Year :
- 2000
-
Abstract
- Taking as its point of departure Bury's (1982) concept of chronic illness as biographical disruption, this paper provides a critical assessment of its fortunes since that time. Having 'rescued' the concept from recent postmodern and disability critiques, the paper provides a series of further reflections on its strengths and weaknesses, including the notion of 'normal illness'; the importance of timing and context; the significance of continuity as well as loss; and the role of biographical disruption itself in the aetiology of illness. This, in turn, provides the basis for a broader set of reflections on the vicissitudes of the biographically embodied self in conditions of late modernity: a situation of chronic reflexivity in which our bodies/selves are continually problematised if not pathologised. The paper concludes, given this 'balance sheet', with a discussion of some potentially fruitful lines of future research, including links with the life-events and inequalities literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *CHRONIC diseases
*ETIOLOGY of diseases
*MODERNITY
*LITERATURE
*EMOTIONS
*PSYCHOLOGY
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 01419889
- Volume :
- 22
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Sociology of Health & Illness
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 3148922
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.00191