Establishing the (extra)ordinary in chronic widespread pain

Journal article | Zeitschriftenartikel

Sufferers of chronic illness face delegitimation of their condition and threats to their identities. One way of establishing the legitimacy of their position is for sufferers of chronic illness to emphasize the ‘ordinary’ in their accounts. Sufferers of conditions which are chronic, invisible and contested, such as chronic widespread pain, have the same, and possibly greater, need to legitimize their condition and refute allegations of ‘malingering’ or psychological instability. The article uses interviews with women with chronic widespread pain to illustrate the ways in which the invisible, subjective and everyday nature of chronic pain leads to sufferers experiencing delegitimation of their condition. It suggests that the accounts of women suffering from chronic widespread pain are constructed to portray a positive identity in the face of this experience, particularly through the emphasis on the ‘extraordinary’.

Object Details

• Extent: Seite(n): 31-48
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Status: Postprint; begutachtet (peer reviewed)

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Health, 9(1)

Classification and Topics

• Subject: chronic illness; chronic pain; in-depth interviews; legitimacy;

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Richardson, Jane C.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (when): 2005

Further information

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459305048096
• URN: urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-225849
• Rights: GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften. Bibliothek Köln
• Last update: 21.06.2024, 4:27 PM CEST