The Experience of Falling Ill and Treatment for Patients with Hematological Cancer: A Psychoanalytic Approach

Abstract

This research was originated by the clinical work of monitoring patients linked to a Hematology Service. The listening, as a resident psychologist in an onco-hematology ward, enabled to encounter the singularity of the hematology clinic, which is responsible for treating diseases linked to blood, bone marrow, and lymphatic system, often invisible to the eye. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate how patients diagnosed with hematologic cancer experience the process of falling ill and undergoing oncologic treatment. This is a descriptive and exploratory research, which uses the clinical-qualitative method. The participants were eight adult patients diagnosed with hematological cancer. Data collection was performed through semi-structured interviews and a sociodemographic questionnaire. The data was analyzed through content analysis, anchored in the theoretical framework of Freudian psychoanalytic work. The results highlighted the subjective factors involved in the experience of falling ill and the treatment of hematological cancer, which do not coincide and demonstrated the importance of the analytic device that offers individuals, who so wish, the possibility to talk about their suffering, expecting that what gets devastated by the disease can be rebuilt by words.