Self-reporting in TPE: valuing biographies adjusted to the clinical register

Abstract

This article examines the self-narrative in interactions between patients and with caregivers who participate in a Patient Therapeutic Education (TPE) program on the self-management of oral cancer drugs. This program has the particularity of combining the objectives of acquiring knowledge and verbalizing the experience with a group of patients. We analyze the effects of socializations and interactions between participants (patients and caregivers) on self-narratives and knowledge sharing in TPE. An ethnographic survey of the TPE workshops was carried out over the course of more than two years interviews with 24participants (professionals and patients) previously observed also made it possible to review their experience of TPE. We start from the premise that self-narratives are part of a legitimate body of knowledge but that they are more or less visible in the context of TPE workshops. We observe in patients a variation in their story depending on the legitimacy granted to their experience and their ability to translate it into a heterogeneous collective. We also show how the interactions between patients and the facilitation of caregivers enhance the stories that align with the principle of patient empowerment and invisible or even obscure others in the name of this same concern.