Abstract

RODRIGUES, Elaine  and  SANTOS, Manoel Antônio dos. Prospective thematic story-drawing: case study about the emotional experience of chemotherapy. Psic., Saúde & Doenças [online]. 2022, vol.23, n.2, pp.457-466.  Epub Sep 30, 2022. ISSN 1645-0086.  https://doi.org/10.15309/22psd230214.

The physical and psychological changes resulting from the side effects of the treatment for breast cancer have profound emotional repercussions for the affected women. Chemotherapy, in particular, is portrayed by the Health Psychology literature as a source of marked physical and emotional suffering. However, qualitative studies that address such impacts are mostly transversal, and investigations with a prospective design are scarce. We designed an individual, qualitative, exploratory, prospective case study, aiming to understand the emotional experience of middle-aged women with breast cancer during chemotherapy treatment. We respect ethical research guidelines. A 55-year-old woman with breast cancer and chemotherapy indication participated. We applied an open interview and the Thematic Story-Drawing Procedure throughout three moments of the chemotherapy treatment: shortly before the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the last cycle. We analyzed the data according to the interpretive psychoanalytic method, describing the participant’s emotional experience according to Winnicottian psychoanalysis. The risk of alopecia caused by chemotherapy was experienced as a realization of the threat to the integrity of the self caused by the illness, increasing the suffering related to the possibility of dissolution of psychosomatic existence. The Thematic Story-Drawing Procedure was a dialogic facilitator in the clinical-investigative process.

Keywords : Breast neoplasms; Women; Chemotherapy; Case study; Life experience; Prospective studies; Middle aged.

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