Psychological Problems of Adjustment to Cancer of the Breast

This paper is the result of a joint investigation by a group of psychoanalysts and surgeons, headed by Dr. Catherine Bacon of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis and Dr. Max Cutler of the Chicago Tumor Institute. Our problem was an exploratory study of the possible psychosomatic aspects of cancer of the breast. The results of this research will be published in a subsequent joint communication. One of us (R. R.) was particularly impressed by the surgeon's interest in the problem of how, why, when, and what to tell the patient with breast carcinoma. The problem was sharply focused during observation of the emotional reactions of 50 women operated on by one of us (M. C.) to the handling by their referring or staff physicians. Our paper is an outgrowth of this analyst's observations and incorporates within it the surgeon's practical experience in the correct, intuitive emotional management of his many cancer patients in the past. In the development of almost every field of science a periodic point is reached at which that particular group is not currently integrating or utilizing its total research advancements or parallel ones in auxiliary fields. The