We make meaning of disease, suffering, and death through narrative, by telling a story. In a therapeutic narrative approach, this article explores the influence of shamanic intervention in psycho-oncology. This qualitative study seeks to present the narrative effects of detailed shamanic sessions (the use of the drum and telling and interpreting visions according to the shamanic mythology) in the context of psycho-oncological treatment. In particular, the narrative positions of a patient (Mrs. AA) are described (using a software linguistic analysis, T-LAB) as they occurred before and after shamanistic sessions. The authors suggested that the shamanism sessions enabled Mrs. AA to produce a larger and more singular narrative about her end-of-life experience: from the initial narrative position of feeling “the acute consciousness of finiteness” to an emergent narrative position based on “consciousness of an interdependence/interconnection in all human and spiritual relationships.”
Mrs. AAs Narrative (Before): The Acute Consciousness of the Finiteness Concerning the conceptual category DISEASE (keywords: cancer, disease, chemotherapy to_be_sick, hospital) in preliminary interview (temporal variable, before, see Figure 2) is associated with Reunion Islands (2 = 6.00; p =.014), with month (2 = 4.87; p = .037), scared (2 = 3.96; p = .047), She (2 = 3.62; p = .05), we (2 = 4.33; p = .03). These associations (see repeated characters that have a bold font style in our narrative examples) in the preliminary interview concerning the disease evoked a rich narrative concerning the acute consciousness of the finiteness. This general meaning of narrative structure started with the moments surrounding the announcement of the severity of cancer with the dramatic conflict to accept it or not (M1): M1. The blood test revealed that I had a very advanced breast cancer. I had metastases all over the spine, and pelvic and cerebral parts and I had six months to live.
id: 7978b654d978ffc526cd64c49a3dc5db - page: 15
M1. We were very scared, I was a flirtatious woman, my family was very very scared for my hair. I went to the hairdresser, every week. M1. I never accepted the disease. I cant accept not working. My elder sister had cancer in the rectum and stomach, the gut. When she found out I had breast cancer, she did not accept it. M1. I had a very very very strong chemotherapy every week, for six months, seven months of chemotherapy. 87 88
id: b64ec3251347c31f71e1b6dabae6e4ad - page: 15
Journal of Humanistic Psychology 61(1) M1. I said yes to continued treatment, of course, because there had been some improvement. I was exhausted exhausted. When I did not have the chemotherapy, I had aplasia. I had two sessions of chemotherapy every week for two months. Finally, I was in a state where nothing could be done. A successive crucial moment of her acute consciousness of the finiteness was discovering the reoccurrence of the cancer with an increased and strong need to approach the family and her homeland (M2): M2. When my cancer started again, my son was at home. He felt I needed him, so he was with me and my husband. I had a new course of chemotherapy, I saw my oncologist again in July. M2. We will go to the Reunion Islands. My husband was born in the Reunion Islands. And my brother-in-law, also suffering from cancer, was a nurse in the Reunion Islands, and now he lives in Paris. But I have the oncologists, I have everything I need in the Reunion Islands.
id: eb90df2033a17dcccb41ea97aa4e12ba - page: 16
Mrs. AAs Narrative (After): Consciousness of the Interconnection/Interdependence in All Relations Concerning the conceptual category, DISEASE (keywords: cancer, disease, chemotherapy to_be_sick, hospital) in the final interview (temporal variable, after, see Figure 3) is associated with Energy (2 = 14.31; p = .001), with week (2 = 5.05; p = .0025), To give (2 = 4.45; p = .035), Shamanicworld (2 = 3.60; p = .05). These associations in the final interview concerning the disease (cancer) evoked a rich narrative on the consciousness of the interconnection/interdependence in all relations (visible and invisible). This general meaning of narrative structure started with the moment of feeling yourself as a channel of interchangeable energy for herself and for others (M1):
id: ca46e6e6eb2e22e6a36b570a33e851e0 - page: 16