title: Spiritual reconfigurations of self after a myocardial infarction: Influence of culture and place.
abstract: This study explored illness narratives following a myocardial infarction (MI) in French Canadians. Qualitative interviews were completed using the McGill Illness Narrative Interview with 51 patients following a first MI. Content analysis of interviews suggested that the heart was perceived as a receptacle that contained an accumulation of life's ordeals, negative emotions and family traumas. This resulted in perceived heart strain, which was considered a direct cause of the MI. References to spirituality were central to the patients' narratives and were identified as instrumental in post-MI recovery. Results illustrate how place and culture interact to shape illness experience and recovery trajectories after a life-threatening health event.
authors.affiliation: Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, McGill University, Montréal, Qué., Canada. danielle.groleau@mcgill.ca
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Groleau
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Whitley
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lespérance
authors.forename: Laurence J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Kirmayer
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000884:Anthropology, Cultural; D016638:Critical Illness / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D011792:Quebec; D029181:Spirituality; D055815:Young Adult
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