The patient with chronic renal failure: a marginal man.
Four years of experience in counseling more than a hundred patients with renal disease has led to a specific overview of a basic problem in self-image. Despite vast differences in patient personalities and life styles, there is one outstanding common element that has been seen repeatedly. These patients all share a desperate struggle to determine for themselves a realistic set of expectations and goals. They tend, after the initial impact of illness dissipates, to find themselves adrift somewhere between the world of the sick and the world of the well; they are, in effect, marginal men.
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012649:Self Concept; D012803:Sick Role; D012951:Socialization