ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psycho-Oncology
The journey of breast cancer in younger women: the interplay between negative autobiographical memories and post-traumatic growth
Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Naples, Italy
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Abstract
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 posttraumatic 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 (AM). The tendency to draw integrative meaning or life lessons from their memories reports high levels of adjustment, recovery, and growth. The aim of this study is to explore the narrative interplays between the hardest, negative AMs of BC treatment and PTG processes. Ten under-fifty women were recruited at the end of medical treatment. An ad-hoc narrative interview to explore the meaning-making of the BC experience was administered. To pursue our aim, we focused on three specific narrative prompts related to negative AMs of BC treatment and PTG. Narratives were analyzed through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The analysis shows three narrative interplays 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: From the Death Anxiety to Self-Resignification; From Physical Suffering to the Choice of Priority; From the Temporality Collapse to the Present Moment Contact. They focus on three distinct yet interconnected aspects of PTG: the identity, the relational, and the temporal level. 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. Not only as an outcome but also as a process of meaning-making aimed at drawing integrative meaning, used for growth, for oneself or one's life from memory itself. Despite the limitation 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 aimed at the transformation of them into a growth one.
Summary
Keywords
autobiographical memories, breast cancer, narratives, Post-traumatic growth, YoungerWomen
Received
15 January 2026
Accepted
13 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Martino and Lemmo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Maria Luisa Martino
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