From Devastation to Integration: Adjusting to and Growing From Medical Trauma
- 1 October 2006
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Qualitative Health Research
- Vol. 16 (8), 1021-1037
- https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732306292166
Abstract
Recent trauma research has begun to investigate the possibility of posttraumatic growth. However, most studies have investigated posttraumatic growth using quantitative methods and thus have neglected people’s subjective experience and have left unexamined post-traumatic growth in persons with visible impairment. To fill some of these gaps, the authors examined the process of recovery and posttraumatic growth using a qualitative method. They interviewed 10 participants with visible impairment from chronic illness or serious injury using a semistructured interview. Using a grounded theory data analysis procedure, the authors developed a stage model of trauma and recovery from the interviews. The stages that emerged are thematically entitled Apprehension, Diagnosis and Devastation, Choosing to Go On, Building a Way to Live, and Integration of the Trauma and Expansion of the Self. The authors discuss limitations of the study and clinical implications for psychological counseling with this population.Keywords
This publication has 20 references indexed in Scilit:
- Researching the disabled identity: contextualising the identity transformations which accompany the onset of impairmentSociology of Health & Illness, 2005
- Loss, Trauma, and Human Resilience: Have We Underestimated the Human Capacity to Thrive After Extremely Aversive Events?American Psychologist, 2004
- How do People Grow from their Experience with Trauma or Loss?Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 2003
- Can disability studies and psychology join hands?American Psychologist, 2003
- Posttraumatic growth following breast cancer: A controlled comparison study.Health Psychology, 2001
- Mentalization and the changing aims of child psychoanalysisPsychoanalytic Dialogues, 1998
- The body, identity, and self: Adapting to impairmentThe Sociological Quarterly, 1995
- Identity Dilemmas of Chronically Ill MenThe Sociological Quarterly, 1994
- In search of how people change: Applications to addictive behaviors.American Psychologist, 1992
- A Better World or a Shattered Vision? Changes in Life Perspectives Following VictimizationSocial Cognition, 1990