THE RELEVANCE OF LEISURE IN AN ILLNESS EXPERIENCE - REALITIES OF SPINAL-CORD INJURY

Illness is generally experienced as more than merely physical or psych ological distress. Depending on its seriousness, illness results in a disruption to one's sense of well being and personal continuity. The s tories of people who have experienced spinal cord injuries illustrate not only the impact of illness in disrupting life stories but also the relevance of leisure in the course of this disruption. In this invest igation, in-depth interviews with 20 people with spinal cord injuries demonstrated that constraints to previously enjoyed activities contrib ute to defining the experience of illness in three important ways: thr ough loss of abilities, through disruption of relationships, and throu gh dependence on others. Discourse on the phenomenology of the body is utilized to interpret these interviews and to offer a conceptual path way for examining the relevance of leisure in other illness experience s.