Main description:

Prospects of Heart Surgery: Psychological Adjustment to Coronary Bypass Grafting reports on a study of how patients and their spouses adjusted to the prospect, and then to the outcome, of coronary graft surgery. The focus upon patients' social relationships rather than upon individuals reveals that the way people bear their illness, and adapt to symptom removal, is part of a wider adjustment involving both the spouse and other individuals. The book offers, as one of its main contributions, a social-psychological approach to the study of illness in general. It sets out a new methodology which might be applied in a number of illness contexts. Using both qualitative and quantitative analyses, Prospects of Heart Surgery describes differences between smooth and problematic approaches to surgery as well as variations in the experience of rehabilitation afterwards.

Contents:

I.- l Surgery and Social Science: Improving the Quality of Life.- 2 Symptoms and Society: Ill-Health as Adjustment.- 3 The Project: Context, Aim, and Method.- II.- 4 Living with Coronary Disease.- 5 The Anticipation of Surgery.- 6 After Surgery-Relief and Recovery.- 7 One Year Later-Restoring Health and Social Life.- III.- 8 Development of Theory.- 9 Implications and Applications.- References.- Appendices.- Author Index.