Chapter 7 - Meaning-making and chronic illness: understanding through narratives

Abstract

Meaning-making has been shown to be a core process for patients adjusting to a chronic illness, and narratives have become an important lens through which to study how individuals make meaning, or make sense, of illness. These narratives give voice to the lived experience of chronic illness and its many effects on health and vitality, daily life, and sense of self. This chapter reviews the research on meaning-making processes in the context of inflammatory bowel disease. It first examines the disruptive effects of chronic illness, focusing on biographical disruption, loss of self, and temporal dimensions of meaning. Then, it turns to the reconstruction of meaning through illness narratives, exploring both individual and social processes. The study of meaning-making through illness narratives has many potential benefits to health care initiatives as well as to patients themselves.