When Cancer Changes the Self: Reconstructing Illness Identity in the Digital Age
Abstract: Cancer is not experienced solely as a biological condition. Diagnosis and treatment can alter bodily experience, daily routine, relationships, expectations for the future, and the continuity through which individuals understand themselves. Although psychosocial oncology has examined coping, adjustment, social support, and psychological distress, the question of how cancer becomes incorporated into a person's sense of self warrants focused attention. This conceptual paper examines illness identity as a central lens for understanding psychological adaptation to cancer. Drawing on foundational work on biographical disruption and loss of self, plus cancer-specific research on illness identity, the paper proposes that adaptation may involve an ongoing negotiation between illness and self rather than a simple return to a pre-cancer identity. The paper distinguishes this proposed process of illness-identity negotiation from established illness-identity concepts: the framework offered here is a conceptual proposition developed by the author, not an established empirical typology. Possible forms of negotiation- illness dominance, identity resistance, identity integration, and identity reconstruction-are therefore presented as sensitizing concepts for future research rather than fixed categories. The paper also considers the digital environment as a social context in which individuals encounter illness information, peer experiences, online communities, and representations of cancer. Such environments may provide resources for identity reconstruction while also introducing comparison and socially available expectations about what it means to live with cancer. The paper concludes that psychosocial oncology may benefit from attending not only to whether patients are coping with cancer, but also to how they are negotiating who they are in relation to it.
Keywords: cancer; illness identity; identity disruption; identity reconstruction; biographical disruption; psychological adaptation; digital context
How to Cite?: Samridhi Thukral, "When Cancer Changes the Self: Reconstructing Illness Identity in the Digital Age", Volume 15 Issue 10, October 2026, International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), Pages: 275-279, https://www.ijsr.net/getabstract.php?paperid=SR261004172902, DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21275/SR261004172902