Chronic illness as biographical disruption
Abstract
The paper is based on semi-structured interviews with a series of rheumatoid arthritis patients. Chronic illness is conceptualised as a particular type of disruptive event. This disruption highlights the resources (cognitive and material) available to individuals, modes of explanation for pain and suffering, continuities and discontinuities between professional and lay thought, and sources of variation in experience.
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All illnesses are socially constructed at the experiential level, based on how individuals come to understand and live with their illness.
“Second, all illnesses are socially constructed at the experiential level, based on how individuals come to understand and live with their illness.”
From The Social Construction of Illness: Key Insights and Policy Implications (2010) · cites this paper as Bury 1982
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- Authors
- Bury, M.
- Affiliations
- Bedford College (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Bury, Michael
- Venue
- Sociology of Health & Illness
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1982-07
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 167-182
- ISSN
- 0141-9889 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9566
- OpenAlex
- W2171810782
- Cited by
- 3,960
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 255 · 2025: 194 · 2024: 174 · 2023: 169 · 2022: 162 · 2021: 195 · 2020: 205 · 2019: 193 · 2018: 200 · 2017: 195 · 2016: 209 · 2015: 197 · 2014: 173 · 2013: 171 · 2012: 143
- FWCI
- 29.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Sociology of Health & Illness (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Qualitative research in health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Rheumatology › Rheumatoid Arthritis Research and Therapies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Medicine, History, and Philosophy
- Keywords
- chronic disease, rheumatoid arthritis, biographical disruption, disruptive events, illness experience, pain and suffering, cognitive resources, material resources, life course
- MeSH terms
- Arthritis, Rheumatoid, Chronic Disease, England, Humans, Sociology, Medical
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