Patients: Reformers or Society’s Waste? A Reflection on the Place of People Living with Cancer in our Society

Abstract

Starting from the philosopher Ruwen Ogien’s essay Mes mille et une nuits – La maladie comme drame et comme comédie (2017) and his representation of being a patient as a full-time job, this article will discuss the metaphor of work in the context of sociological and educational studies on this subject. In the second part, this article will question the place of people with cancer in the French healthcare system and in society and ask if the storytelling of a serious illness, such as cancer, can represent a way for patients to find an active role in society again.

Keywords

• patient and health system;
• patient’s work
• illness and social context;
• therapeutic patient education (tpe)
• autopathography;
• ruwen ogien