Biographical Disruption and Factors Facilitating Overcoming It

Abstract

In the paper the concept «biographical disruption» is interpreted as a process that includes significant changes in the course of an individual’s life and biography as the perception and interpretation of the life course. As the central concept of the paper, biographical disruption is analyzed as having been brought about by an inherited heightened risk of breast cancer or ovarian cancer. The paper has examined the influence of the inherited breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 on the development of biographical disruption. The empirical research data used for the study were obtained from the interdisciplinary research project «Creation of a new interdisciplinary research team to investigate breast cancer and to increase the efficacy of therapy and the patient’s quality of life» (agreement No. 2009/0230/1DP/1.1.1.2.0/09/APIA/VIAA/070). In studying and analyzing the possibilities of overcoming a biographical disruption, the conclusion is that this depends on the individual’s own biographical work, or narrative reconstruction and various types of social support.