Autopathography of cancer an investigation into the patient authors experience of illness and healing

Abstract

The growing interactions amongst disciplines and areas alike have broadened the arena of newlineinterdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research. This growth paves the way for a more inclusive research of topics and issues being gazed at from different perspectives and lenses. The field of Medical/Health Humanities is a product of such an interaction between Humanities and newlineMedicine. It takes elements from both areas to aid biomedical professionals and patients. The role of Humanities in this area is to add to the understanding and the existing knowledge of illness experience. The growth of research areas such as medical humanities invites knowledge and scholarly approaches from gender studies, anthropology, sociology to better understand health care within the larger social contexts. It also encourages the growth of various inclusive newlinemethodologies to support and aid scholarly research. It facilitates different mixed methods and approaches to understand and decode the complexities of health care. The arguments around the cultivation of such skills for medical experts provide the basis for the development of Medical Humanities as an integral area of research. Such interdisciplinary collaborations and interactions have shaped the ways in which scholars conduct research to understand and address the needs of the society around. These inquiries of interdisciplinary nature feed both academic curiosity and enable social advancement. They also enable an academic inquiry that requires aid from different disciplines in order to address its concerns. The translation of the disease as an experience of illness is captured through writings of patient-authors within the genre of autopathography. The patient moves from being the object of biomedical records to the subject of their stories. The narratives, through their close reflection on illness, allow the research to look at recovery and newlinehealing from a different perspective. The patient-authors pose an individual narrative about their experience.