Dépassement de la rupture des temporalités et réorganisation psychique chez la femme atteinte de cancer du col de l’utérus

Abstract

During the internship at the YGH, it was observed that many cervical cancer patients were serene, reassured, coherent and confident. During the semi-structured clinical interviews, it was noted that their discourse highlighted that they looked to the future with optimistic, despite the experience of the disease and the constraints associated with it. The bedside consultations made it clear that they were undergoing a psychic reorganization. In the classical psychoanalytic perspective, psychic reorganization in women with cervical cancer is underpinned by processes of regression and release, and by the quality of intersubjective relationships that foster constant adjustment of the ego. This perspective, for all its merit, does not take into account the need to overcome the rupture of temporalities in order to understand psychic reorganization. However, from a contemporary psychoanalytical perspective, overcoming the rupture of temporalities is personal and collective transformation, and is facilitated by the ability to overcome the crisis and rupture of temporalities. Psychic processes play a crucial role in this evolution, highlighting the importance of psychic organization and reorganization in overcoming this rupture. This research problem was concretized by the following question: How does going beyond the rupture of temporalities contribute to psychic reorganization in women with cervical cancer? To answer this question, the following hypothesis was formulated: Overcoming the rupture of temporalities contributes to psychic reorganization through the implementation of psychic processes in women with cervical cancer. The aim of the present study is to understand how overcoming the rupture of temporalities through the implementation of psychic processes works in psychic reorganization in women with cervical cancer. The research used is a qualitative approach based on a case study of four adult women with cervical cancer who had undergone more than one treatment at the YGH. Using a thematic content analysis, the main findings reveal that: the sudden and unpredictable onset of cervical cancer in the lives of the participants is a source of many trials and constraints. These include pain, body depreciation, discouragement, castration, emotional absence, cessation of professional activities and anxiety attacks, as well as intrapsychic conflicts, feelings of insecurity and injustice. In addition, psychic reorganization through manifestations of overcoming the rupture of temporalities takes place in a transitional psychic space, depending on the implementation of psychic processes of symbolization, scaffolding, certain defense mechanisms and the work of mourning the affected organ. This gives clinical relevance to the initial hypothesis.