TY  - JOUR
T1  - Reconstructing the Patient Identity After Diagnosis: A Theory of Illness Meaning, Self-Concept Transformation, and Social Role Adaptation
A1  - Omar Zayed
A1  - Leila Ibrahim
A1  - Ahmed Mansour
JF  - International Journal of Social and Psychological Aspects of Healthcare
JO  - Int J Soc Psychol Asp Healthc
SN  - 3108-4818
Y1  - 2026
VL  - 6
IS  - 1
DO  - 10.51847/CBXEEse0pE
SP  - 141
EP  - 150
N2  - Diagnosis can alter how a person explains the past, anticipates the future, understands the body, occupies social roles, and decides what aspects of illness should become visible to others. Yet identity change is often described as either biographical disruption or adaptation, leaving insufficient space for continuity, rejection, enrichment, ambivalence, recurrent rupture, and context-dependent reconstruction. This article develops a non-empirical theory that distinguishes the diagnostic event from the meaning assigned to it, illness identity from the wider self-concept, and intrapersonal change from relational negotiation. Engulfment, rejection, acceptance, and enrichment are treated as possible identity positions rather than ordered stages or fixed patient types. Disclosure, reflected appraisals, cultural expectations, embodiment, legitimacy, and access to relational or digital resources may redirect identity trajectories. Agency is conceptualized as constrained and relational rather than as an individual capacity to “accept” illness. Reconstruction is therefore recursive: accommodation can be followed by renewed disruption when symptoms, treatment demands, roles, or social responses change. The theory generates bounded, testable implications for healthcare engagement without assuming that a coherent illness identity is universally desirable or clinically beneficial.
UR  - https://smerpub.com/article/reconstructing-the-patient-identity-after-diagnosis-a-theory-of-illness-meaning-self-concept-trans-x3tt6ubkmswsa6l
ER  -