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A discursive account of the male experience of ME (Butlin & Chapman, 2007)

Dolphin

Senior Member
Messages
17,567
[Just a poster but I'm not sure I've seen papers on this topic. There are probably quite a lot of abstracts/posters on ME or CFS at http://abstracts.bps.org.uk that never made it to full papers]

http://bit.ly/laR3R5 i.e.
http://abstracts.bps.org.uk/index.c...view&frmShowSelected=true&localAction=details

Conference Proceedings
Abstract Details

2007 Division of Health Psychology Annual Conference

Conference Venue: University of Nottingham Division of Health Psychology (DHP)

From: 09 Dec 2007
To: 14 Sep 2007



Poster(s)


'It's just a bit of a lose, lose situation'. A discursive account of the male experience of ME K. Butlin De Montfort University

R. Chapman
De Montfort University


Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) is a chronic, debilitating condition
affecting around 240,000 people in the UK. The illness is extremely
controversial because of the debate over its validity as a physical illness.
Research to date mostly focuses on women's accounts of ME and this study
aims to redress this balance by providing an analysis of how men diagnosed
with ME talk about the everyday management of living with their illness. Six
semi-structured interviews were conducted producing approximately nine hours
of data. Recorded interviews were fully transcribed, coded for dominant
themes and analysed using discourse analysis. Three key themes were selected
for analysis; how men attend to their masculinity; how they attended to
issues relating to their work, and; how they managed everyday social
interactions.

This study provides a unique insight into how men talk about and construct
the effects of ME on their lives. In particular, men construct accounts,
which attend to how the illness threatens their masculinity, how they are
alienated from doing normal mundane activities as a consequence of the
physical limitations of the illness and how everyday social interactions are
difficult to manage. They also attend to the dilemma of being unable to
return to work by justifying and constructing themselves as hardworking men,
who subscribe to a traditional strong work ethic. It is proposed that the
findings of this study could enhance the medical professions understanding
of men who report with ME symptoms and could also inform medical
practitioners in the development of therapy and rehabilitation programmes.
 

Desdinova

Senior Member
Messages
276
Location
USA
To say that I was insulted by what I just read is an understatement.

In particular, men construct accounts, which attend to how the illness threatens their masculinity,

how everyday social interactions are difficult to manage. They also attend to the dilemma of being unable to return to work by justifying and constructing themselves as hardworking men,
who subscribe to a traditional strong work ethic.

Let me guess all men with this disorder have SAD (Social Anxiety Disorder) and negative, narrow and or wrong conceptions and beliefs on what defines them as being a man. If anyone can't see that's where they're going with this then they're BLIND.
 
Messages
15,786
Let me guess all men with this disorder have SAD (Social Anxiety Disorder) and negative, narrow and or wrong conceptions and beliefs on what defines them as being a man. If anyone can't see that's where they're going with this then they're BLIND.

Oooooh, they caught our hysterical girly disease because we emasculated them! :D
 

Desdinova

Senior Member
Messages
276
Location
USA
Well I've got a job how I do it I don't know. I manage to accomplish little else, not because I lack drive, ambition or the desire but because I'm wiped out. Unforgettably you can't explain this to people they hear you say the previous sentence and it's "Oh my you sound Depressed you should see someone about that. At least take something for it maybe both If you can afford it."

They think that it's funny that you have bruises, scrapes and cuts from falling down while trying to walk up the stairs to your apartment after you get off of work. They can't understand that it's hard to walk or stand after working your job to the point that stairs are a major obstacle.

Nor will they ever understand the pins, needles, burning and freezing sensations that you feel sometimes everywhere. Nope your supposed to be a man and just push on through, suck it up and push on through. If their ever comes a time you can't then you aren't really a man. Remember sick people look sick and really sick people are sick looking all the time. You know they look like they might kinda die.:rolleyes: