EMOTIONAL REACTIONS TO DISFIGUREMENT FROM CANCER THERAPY.

Disfigurement not only produces current anxieties but reactivates childhood conflicts. The emotional reaction depends upon the disturbance to the patient's major adaptations to life as well as the meaning of the organ to the patient. Fear of isolation and rejection by others may be more terrifying than fear of death. Emotional reactions include regression with marked dependency, anxiety, depression, hostility and, if severe, paranoid states, …