La guérison est-elle une maladie chronique ? Dette(s), stigmates et conversion

While children suffering from cancer undergo an ordeal, the healing process also puts them through a series of difficulties. Medical research analyzes risks (cardiac and gonadal after effects, for example) incurred by former patients suffering from cancer; psychology studies warn about the psychological difficulties that ensue, but sociology hardly tackles the issue it raises, especially when it deals with children. However, being healed from cancer rarely means being healthy and transitioning from the status of being a sick child to that of being healed does require some adjustments, particularly with regards to the body and to society. It is important to explain how some of these adjustments are determined by the legacy of the cure, i.e. not only to study the link between the two but more importantly to understand the effect of the legacy on the individuals' social trajectories. In what way can it influence professional choices? Can we talk about only one legacy and to whom? How can former sick children cope with it and at what cost? These questions open a new field of reflection about the very definition of healing in the context of cancer treatment. It seems the status of being “healed” does not always match that of being healthy, neither psychologically nor socially or sociologically.