The importance of mothers' self cohesion when their children diagnosed were with cancer


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Yurdusen S., Akyuz C., GENÇÖZ F.

KLINIK PSIKIYATRI DERGISI-TURKISH JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHIATRY, vol.23, no.2, pp.214-228, 2020 (ESCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 23 Issue: 2
  • Publication Date: 2020
  • Doi Number: 10.5505/kpd.2020.82612
  • Journal Name: KLINIK PSIKIYATRI DERGISI-TURKISH JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHIATRY
  • Journal Indexes: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, Psycinfo, Directory of Open Access Journals, TR DİZİN (ULAKBİM)
  • Page Numbers: pp.214-228
  • Keywords: Mother, self, selfobject, childhood cancer, narrative
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Having a child with cancer has an enormous impact on their mothers. Usually mothers describe their feeling as "losing some part of themselves". In order to understand this traumatic experience on mothers' psychology, psychoanalytic explanations of self/self-cohesion experiences should be taken into account. In this study a comparative case analysis was performed using narrative inquiry and narrative analysis. Two mothers were chosen. Each mother was interviewed about their self-selfobject needs and its relation to their traumatic cancer experience. The narrative analysis revealed that, the mother who had a weak self cohesion before the diagnose reported more traumatic narratives in comparison to the mother who had a healthy self cohesion. Not all mothers with children who has cancer were affected to the same extent from this traumatic experience. Understanding mother's earlier and present selfobject transferences will help clinician to intervene to the right person. Understanding mot-hers' distress from the psychoanalytic perspective and intervene at that level not only improve mothers' well-being but also the children's and the society's at large.