Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
this transformation: fi rst what he calls the process of anchoring and second
the process of objectifi cation. Moscovici writes:
Social representations are always complex, and necessarily inscribed
within the framework of pre-existing thought … hence always dependent
on systems of belief anchored in values, traditions and images of the
world and of existence … so that every new phenomenon can always
be incorporated within explanatory or justifi catory models which are
familiar and therefore acceptable.
(Moscovici 2000: 156-7)
Without doubt, life and death are the two main themes recurring in all
illness narratives on the studied website. Though every illness story is unique
and the main themes are individually elaborated, a more or less shared world
of meaning may be identifi ed on the site, where both life and death are
ascribed a special culturally imprinted meaning. It is not biomedical death
that is in the forefront but death as absence and loss of possibilities. This
kind of death is not primarily associated with dramatic, historical events and
signifi cant public persons, but with everyday man - it is a death that may hit
each of us at any time. For those who survive a bleeding aneurysm, death
is regarded either as a hardly manageable threat or as a background against
which a new life takes shape and sometimes obtains a new value.
Concurrently, death in the emergent representation is given its certain
meaning through those who did not survive. Approximately 30 per cent
of the narratives are written by the surviving spouse, parents, children and
friends. It is by their descriptions of all those everyday routines, reciprocal
feelings, common subjects for rejoicing and fears, shared experiences and
meaningful memories, future plans etc., that suddenly cease when a person
does not survive, that the aneurysm-death obtains a concrete meaning.
But also life obtains a special meaning in this social representation
of aneurysm. The 'aneurysm life' falls into three parts: life before the
knowledge of aneurysm, life while waiting for something to happen and
fi nally life after a bleeding, a rupture or an intervention. In many narratives
signifi cant events, such as a marriage, a completed diploma or a new job,
are mentioned and indicate that the storytellers experienced themselves as
facing a new promising phase in life when the aneurysm appears. Life before
the aneurysm is represented as something rich and promising against which
life after gets its meaning.
The second part of the aneurysm life appears as a more or less extended
and fateful period while waiting for something to happen, such as a bleeding,
an operation, endovascular intervention, or a decision to wait and see.
This phase is often described as diffi cult to put up with and as containing a
tension between passive expectations, powerlessness and febrile, dramatic
activity. During this period, the biomedical conception of aneurysm is at
the centre of attention. In this phase one can expect that the unfamiliar
