The interpretation of women's experience: A critical appraisal of the literature on breast cancer

In the last few decades there has been a proliferation of authoritative literature on women's psychosocial adjustment to Breast Cancer and its treatment. This literature is ostensibly concerned with understanding women's experiences in order to recommend effective intervention programmes. The aim of this appraisal is to make explicit some implicit assumptions embodied in that literature, which severely inhibit comprehensive investigation of women's needs. While these assumptions remain implicit, any recommended intervention will necessarily be fragmentary, focusing on only a few features of the experience in only a proportion of the women. In order to illustrate this, the paper will focus on the literature's management of women's reactions to breast loss as treatment for the disease.