Social lessons of cancer: what are the histories of personal transformations of cancer patients in remission talking about modern society as an environment of human life?

On May 17 Berdysheva E.S. (PhD, senior research fellow) took part in the "Culture matters" research seminar with the report "Social lessons of cancer: what are the histories of personal transformations of cancer patients in remission talking about modern society as an environment of human life?".

The report was based on the first results of an ethnographic empirical study of the social experience of patients with the oncological diagnosis. Based on the data from in-depth interviews with patients, psychologists, representatives of NGO assistants, as well as the discourse of oncology online communities analysis, an attempt was made to show the experience of individuals with cancer as an experience primarily of social death, associated with large-scale economic, social and personal losses for the individual.