Abstract
When cancer strikes, the belief system that once provided a sense of stability, familiarity, and security is shattered by reflection and inquiry. Families and caregivers help give meaning to life by the act of consistently dispensing their love, care, and hope. The psychodynamics of hope and meaning challenge professionals to step beyond the dichotomy of traditionally defined notions of health, stress, and disorder and to see people in distress as unique, competent, and capable of constructing their own meanings within their cultural and family settings. These challenges provide the potential for generating alternative options to adequately address familial cognitive and coherent behaviors. Clinical and empirical evidence is rapidly emerging to suggest that meaning and coping are critical mediators between cancer-related distress and psychological well-being and may be possible mechanisms to explain the coexistence of alternative psychological states following cancer diagnosis.
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Baider, L. (2013). In the Pursuit of Meaning: Cancer and the Family. In: Surbone, A., Zwitter, M., Rajer, M., Stiefel, R. (eds) New Challenges in Communication with Cancer Patients. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3369-9_10
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