Research Abstract |
This research verifies what we have long believed that, compared to older women, young mothers, who have cancer, have a much more forward-looking attitude and fighting determination to defeat the cancer, for the sake of their children, and to do this despite their fear of recurrence of cancer and uncertainty about whether they can live or not. The subjects studied were young mothers with breast cancer and much older women (from 75 to 80 year old). The methods used were Rorschach test and patients' written accounts. It was found that the young mothers had a strong desire to live and were positive in attitude, the older women, by contrast, were fatalistic about their lives. Using both the Rorschach response together with the patients' own written account, our hypothesis was clearly confirmed.
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