Abstract
Spirituality, religion and family play pivotal roles in addressing issues related to one’s illness experiences. The illness experiences were perceived as a moral-religious experience rather than a mere suffering due to bodily dysfunctions. Thus, this qualitative study aimed at exploring the concept of spirituality in the lives of young Malay breast cancer patients. An ethnographic fieldwork was carried out among 13 young Malay breast cancer patients in Klang Valley and several selected areas of Selangor, Malaysia. A purposive snowballing technique was employed to select the informants for the study. A series of in-depth interviews, phone and online interviews guided by semi-structured interview schedule and participant observation were carried out among the informants. It is evident from the study that the manifestation of spiritual experiences in relation to their breast cancer is attributed to the spiritual meaning of breast cancer illness, roles of family in providing spiritual support and medical pluralisation. The informants attributed their breast cancer illness as qada’ and qadar of Allah. They accented it as ujian (test) or balasan (divine punishment) for a good cause from Allah S.W.T. On this account, spiritual healing was sought as complementary to hospital treatment in searching a cure for breast cancer.
Highlights
Spirituality, religion, and family play pivotal roles in addressing issues relating to breast cancer prognosis and treatment
This qualitative study aimed at exploring the concept of spirituality in the lives of young Malay breast cancer patients
It is evident from the study that the manifestation of and misery in social relationships, as in a family tragedy; 11 spiritual experiences in relation to their breast cancer is attributed to the spiritual meaning of breast cancer illness, roles of family in providing spiritual support and medical pluralisation
Summary
Abstract- Spirituality, religion and family play pivotal roles in addressing issues related to one’s illness experiences. The informants attributed their breast cancer illness as qada’ and qadar of Allah They accented it as ujian (test) or balasan (divine punishment) for a good cause from Allah S.W.T. They accented it as ujian (test) or balasan (divine punishment) for a good cause from Allah S.W.T On this account, spiritual healing was sought as complementary to hospital treatment in searching a cure for (2) it is a societal construction that acts as a cultural model, a moral guide of and for experience, and (3) it is a professional discourse that organizes forms of suffering as bureaucratic categories and objects of technical intervention, such as the professional conversion of illness experience into disease pathophysiology.
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