Abstract

MARTINS, Alberto Mesaque  and  NASCIMENTO, Adriano Roberto Afonso do. "I am not a man anymore!: ": Masculinities and Illness Experiences of Prostate Cancer. Gerais, Rev. Interinst. Psicol. [online]. 2020, vol.13, n.2, pp. 1-19. ISSN 1983-8220.  http://dx.doi.org/10.36298/gerais202013e14662.

This study aimed to understand the way men experience the illness process of prostate cancer and to analyze their experiences related to cancer treatment. Episodic narrative interviews were conducted with 08 men, aged between 50 and 70 years, diagnosed with prostate cancer and who reported having completed treatment, analyzed through the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. According to the interviewees, the cancer is a serious illness, complex, aggressive and strongly associated with death and suffering. The physical limitations and the new routine imposed by the illness and treatment are very different from the livelihoods of men before the illness, and produced feelings of fear, anxiety about the possibility of death and suffering. The illness and the treatment required that men develop their ideas about their bodies and opened space for construction of new ways of thinking and living masculinity.

Keywords : Masculinities; Prostate Cancer; Social Psychology.

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