Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Time & Society
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hellström, C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Affecting the Future

Chronic Pain and Perceived Agency in a Clinical Setting

Christina Hellström

The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate chronic pain patients' perceptions of the pain-future relation, more specifically, of the way such perceptions affect: (1) well-being and coping; (2) psychosocial organization/adaptation; and (3) experienced agency in a clinical context. In-depth interviews with 18 chronic pain patients were conducted in order to generate categories describing the influence of chronic pain on the patient's perception of the future. The analysis resulted in six general conceptual patterns: diagnosis - `a signpost' to the future; changes in prospective thinking and feeling; `frozen futures'; changed strategies for coping with the future; perceived degree of agency; and approaches to handling conflicts in a clinical setting. The results call for more `time empathy' in patient-doctor encounters.

Key Words: agency • chronic pain • coping • perceived future • time

Time & Society, Vol. 10, No. 1, 77-92 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/0961463X01010001005
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?