Heroic self-healing and cancer: clinical issues for the health professions

Increasingly over the last few decades, persons with cancer are being cured or surviving longer. As a result, the popular press has given more attention to the possibilities for "beating" cancer. The role of personal control in overcoming cancer has been promoted via a heroic formula that includes positive thinking, healing imagery, and personal growth. Empirical support for a psychospiritual influence on cancer illness is tenuous. Nevertheless, the psychological implications of belief in such influence are important in their own right. In this paper, the positive and negative consequences for patients of popular conceptions of the heroic cancer survivor are explored. Clinical and ethical issues related to the health professional's responses to patients' belief in heroic self-healing are discussed, and a rationale is presented for adopting a non-judgmental, person-centered approach.