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Self, identity and radical surgery
Author(s) -
Kelly Michael
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
sociology of health and illness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1467-9566
pISSN - 0141-9889
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9566.ep11357507
Subject(s) - ileostomy , ulcerative colitis , identity (music) , colectomy , social identity theory , psychology , surgery , general surgery , social psychology , medicine , sociology , aesthetics , social group , art , disease , pathology
Data are reported from interviews, analysed qualitatively, with persons who had had ulcerative colitis cured by radical surgery. The procedures performed on the subjects were total colectomy and ileostomy. The subjects were left permanently faecally incontinent by these procedures. Using concepts derived from the work of Mead, and developed in interactionist sociology, the consequences for self and identity of these operations are considered. The tension between the private self of the person with an ileostomy and their public social identity as an ileostomist is examined.