You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This collection of papers, edited by Jane Elfer under the title ‘Perspectives from a psych-oncology team working with teenagers and young adults with cancer – thrown off course’ offers a touching, visceral and illuminating insight into a clinical world not often seen.
The nature of cancer as a disease ignites primitive phantasies – our own cells, dividing at a rate that is uncontrollable, that shut down physical systems. As the work detailed within this book brilliantly describes, there are very young children who have a concept of cancer as taking away their loved ones. A concept that ignites fear. Individual phantasies of a toxic body are evoked; social phantasies of a fight or a journey are similarly aroused. A person with a diagnosis of cancer comes under the scrutiny and spotlight of the ‘medical gaze’
(Foucault, 1963/2003) wherein they are seen as a set of medical issues rather than a human being. Medicines are used which can seem to harm as much as they help. The notion of the ‘pharmakon’ springs to mind, the ancient Greek term meaning remedy and poison. This complexity is sometimes combined with the developmental stage of adolescence and the physical and psychical changes this period of life is typified by. With cancer rates increasing, there will be few who are unaffected by a disease that seems to be the antithesis of life. In short, cancer is a difficult topic to write about, let alone work with clinically.
That is why this book is a prescient work. It navigates the emotional turmoil of cancer within the teenage and young adult population with tenderness and devotion to those who have gone through their journey with cancer. This book is a moving description of the work of a multidisciplinary team in a major London teaching hospital who specialise in the psychological well-being of teenagers and young adults who have a diagnosis of cancer. Reading about the work in this book was at times difficult, bringing tears to the eyes, but also incredibly uplifting