title: 'I used to dream of lupus as some sort of creature': Chronic illness as an internal object.
abstract: This study examines the place occupied by chronic illness in the inner lives of 15 women suffering from Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). A phenomenological analysis of illness narratives demonstrates that sufferers construe their illness as a protagonist or, using an object-relations informed perspective, as an internal object. That is, with time sufferers constituted a mental representation of SLE that in itself has the power to influence the sufferers' affective states and behaviors. An insight into these "illness relations" is conducive to a better understanding of the "lived experience" of SLE for disabled, economically disadvantaged women. Through their experience, the study of risk and resilience in chronic illness may be advanced.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. e.schattner@gmail.com
authors.forename: Emanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Schattner
authors.forename: Golan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Shahar
authors.forename: Mahmoud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abu-Shakra
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008180:Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D033262:Narration; D009769:Object Attachment