Health, healing and recovery: Therapeutic landscapes and the everyday lives of breast cancer survivors

Drawing on the theory of therapeutic landscapes, this paper examines the importance of place for shaping health and healing among breast cancer survivors. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 14 women in the Greater Toronto Area at various stages of breast cancer recovery to exami...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social science & medicine (1982) 2008-07, Vol.67 (1), p.68-78
Main Authors: English, Jennifer, Wilson, Kathi, Keller-Olaman, Sue
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitude to Health
Attitudes
Biological and medical sciences
Body Image
Breast Cancer
Breast Neoplasms - psychology
Breast Neoplasms - therapy
Canada
Cancer
Emotional geographies
Emotions
Everyday life
Feelings
Female
Geography
Gynecology. Andrology. Obstetrics
Healing
Humans
Mammary gland diseases
Medical sciences
Medical sociology
Medical treatment
Medicine
Mental health
Miscellaneous
Psychological aspects
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Sickness Impact Profile
Social sciences
Social Support
Survivor
Survivors - psychology
Therapeutic landscapes
Therapeutic landscapes Breast cancer Healing Emotional geographies Canada
Toronto, Ontario
Treatment
Tumors
Women
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Summary:Drawing on the theory of therapeutic landscapes, this paper examines the importance of place for shaping health and healing among breast cancer survivors. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 14 women in the Greater Toronto Area at various stages of breast cancer recovery to examine where and how they access and create landscapes of healing. The interviews revealed the importance of everyday and extraordinary therapeutic landscapes that are created in bodies and homes, as well as the broader community and nature. Those landscapes with which women interact on an everyday basis appear to be most important for physical and psychological healing. In addition, the research suggests a strong interplay between emotions and place such that emotional geographies, which appear to be embedded within places of healing, play an important role in shaping and maintaining therapeutic landscapes. Further research is needed to understand the place of emotions in creating therapeutic landscapes, particularly for those populations most in need of healing.
ISSN:0277-9536
1873-5347
DOI:10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.03.043