ABSTRACT
The breast cancer support industry largely reinforces a particular gender stereotype with its pink bows, sentimentality, and “Look Good Feel Better” programs; sugar coating and normalizing the experience of breast cancer without questioning its causes or treatment. A potent healing symbol became the koru where the cancer cells were lovingly contained and transformed within the curled fronds. B. Broom, J. S. Welch and others point out the importance of the symbolic nature of illness and the meaning that patients make of their disease. The meaning of disease can be seen from a dualistic-warfare view of being under attack, or as an inevitable and natural part of the evolutionary process. In a review of the research on the psychological aspects of MindBody medicine with cancer patients, researchers concluded that such interventions could improve quality of life, alter immune functioning and possibly survival rates.
