CATASTROPHIC DISEASES: METAPHORS OF HIV/AIDS AND CANCER IN CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH

Abstract

This article presents a reflection on the metaphors that catastrophic diseases represent in the lives of girls, boys and young people. This document shows the strong relationship t between the experience of the disease and the language of war to which the person living with catastrophic diseases, such as cancer and HIV/AIDS, is exposed. The reflection focuses on the ways in which some theoretical, investigative, medical and literary perspectives, in terms of coping and resilience, place the subject who experiences these diseases as a warrior who must fight against the affectations of the disease, to finally assign him a role of winner or loser of a battle that they must face. In addition, there are some reflections on the ways in which creativity is driven by the disease, in the desire of the subjects to express their emotions through creativity and to do a resignification of their life project from a creative reading of the present,
transcending future dreams and the experience of illness.