Publications

Publication details [#1445]

Lanceley, Anne and Macleod Clark. 2013. Cancer in Other Words? The Role of Metaphor in Emotion Disclosure in Cancer Patients. British Journal of Psychotherapy 29 (2) : 182–201. 20 pp.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Place, Publisher
Oxford: Blackwell Publishing

Abstract

The study focuses on the examination of emotional talk exchanges between nurses and patients in a variety of cancer care settings and within the framework of psychodynamic theory. The data yield that patients' usage of metaphor to express their distress was pervasive and participating nurses demonstrated responsive though sometimes problematic skills. The study provides evidence of unconscious processes in nurses' work and advocates career-long psychoanalytically informed supervision for nurses to better support them in challenging dialogue with cancer patients.