The journey of breast cancer among younger women: the interplay between negative autobiographical memories and post-traumatic growth

Breast cancer (BC) under 50 years is a critical, potentially traumatic experience that breaks a phase of life characterized by significant goals and expectations. Meaning-making transformation supports post-traumatic growth (PTG) that generally may occur at the end of the experience. The struggling diagnosis and treatment of BC at a young age usually remain strongly imprinted in the mind and body within the autobiographical memories (AMs). Individuals who report a tendency to draw integrative meaning or life lessons from their memories exhibit high levels of adjustment, recovery, and growth. This study aims to explore the narrative interplay between the hardest, negative AMs of BC treatment and PTG processes. A total of 10 women aged under 50 were recruited at the end of medical treatment. An <i>ad hoc</i> narrative interview was administered to explore the meaning-making of the BC experience. To pursue our aim, we focused on three narrative prompts related to negative AMs associated with BC treatment and PTG. Narratives were analyzed through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The analysis shows three narrative interplay trajectories between the hardest and negative AMs related to the BC medical journey that open to specific processes of growth at the end of the treatment: <i>From the Death Anxiety to Self-Resignification; From Physical Suffering to the Choice of Priority; From the Temporality Collapse to the Present Moment Contact.</i> They focus on three distinct yet interconnected aspects of PTG: identity, relational, and temporal levels. The findings confirm how PTG is generated by women's ability to transform the hardest and negative meaning of AMs of the experience. The presence of particularly difficult AMs attests to the psychic process associated with PTG. This process not only serves as an outcome but also facilitates meaning-making aimed at drawing integrative meaning, used for growth, either for oneself or one's life from memory itself. Despite the limitations of this study, it highlights the supportive use of AMs in a psycho-oncology context as a device to reflect on how BC women have internalized the meanings of cancer experience. It also aims to construct a setting conducive to their transformation into a growth-oriented one.