Trauma and Resilience in Women Diagnosed with Breast Cancer: A Transactional Analysis Perspective

Abstract

This articles describes a phenomenological study done with patients from the Breast Unit at Marmara University Hospital in Istanbul, Turkey, to gain understanding of the psychology of women with breast cancer. In addition, the study aimed to provide a different perspective as to why existing psychological studies on breast cancer yield contradictory or inconsistent outcomes. The Biographic Narrative Interpretative Method (Wengraf, 2001) was used, and the analysis of interviews with four women with invasive ductal carcinoma suggested that they shared six characteristics and a sequence of four life stressors at predictable intervals from childhood to adulthood, the fourth being the trauma of being diagnosed with breast cancer. Psychoanalytic and relational transactional analytic perspectives offer a possible explanation for these findings and a clinical framework for treating women with breast cancer. Consideration is given to the advantages and limitations of this kind of study.