This book examines how ‘Therapeutic Recreation’ transforms the social health of children enduring or recovering from life-threatening illnesses such as cancer and leukaemia. With studies drawn from ‘Serious Fun’ projects in the USA, the UK, France, Ireland and Israel, the author explores how camp experiences in convivial circumstances help to bring about healing. Employing central concepts from sociology and anthropology, such as 'liminality', 'mimesis' and 'salutogenesis', Healing Rites of Passage explains why a brief secluded holiday can reform the campers’ shared situation of life-threatening illnesses towards health and flourishing. The whole process can be understood in terms of a 'rite of passage', as structured camp experiences enable children to shed previous ‘sick roles’ and pass through a series of challenges in order to achieve social re-integration with a renewed zest for living. An empirically grounded study that reveals the analytic value of master concepts in the social sciences, this book will appeal to scholars in the fields of sociology, anthropology, paediatrics, social theory and the sociology of health, illness and medicine.
Peter James Kearney is Emeritus Professor of Paediatrics and Occasional Lecturer in Sociology at University College Cork, Ireland.
AcknowledgementsSeries Editor’s ForewordPreambleIntroduction1. Hope and Heartbreak in Paediatric Oncology2. Serious Fun Experiences 3. Mirage: The Medical Paradigm of Health 4. Salutogenic Experiences: Liberating the Butterfly5. Healing Rites of Passage6. Genesis and Mimesis 7. Triangles of Desire: Mime Artists on a Pedestal8. The Magi: Three Wise Men Bearing Gifts9. Genealogy of the Camp Embrace10. Serious Fun InternationalConclusionReferencesIndex
Bert van den Bergh, Sabine Flick, Kieran Keohane, Domonkos Sik, The Netherlands) van den Bergh, Bert (The Hague University, Germany) Flick, Sabine (University of Education, Freiburg, Ireland) Keohane, Kieran (University College Cork, Hungary) Sik, Domonkos (Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Bert Van Den Bergh, Bert van den Bergh
Kieran Keohane, Anders Petersen, Bert van den Bergh, Ireland) Keohane, Kieran (University College Cork, Denmark) Petersen, Anders (Aalborg University, The Netherlands) van den Bergh, Bert (The Hague University, Bert van den Bergh
Kieran Keohane, Anders Petersen, Bert van den Bergh, Ireland) Keohane, Kieran (University College Cork, Denmark) Petersen, Anders (Aalborg University, The Netherlands) van den Bergh, Bert (The Hague University, Bert van den Bergh
Kieran Keohane, Anders Petersen, Bert van den Bergh, Ireland) Keohane, Kieran (University College Cork, Denmark) Petersen, Anders (Aalborg University, The Netherlands) van den Bergh, Bert (The Hague University, Bert van den Bergh
Bert van den Bergh, Sabine Flick, Kieran Keohane, Domonkos Sik, The Netherlands) van den Bergh, Bert (The Hague University, Germany) Flick, Sabine (University of Education, Freiburg, Ireland) Keohane, Kieran (University College Cork, Hungary) Sik, Domonkos (Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Bert Van Den Bergh, Bert van den Bergh
Kieran Keohane, Anders Petersen, Bert van den Bergh, Ireland) Keohane, Kieran (University College Cork, Denmark) Petersen, Anders (Aalborg University, The Netherlands) van den Bergh, Bert (The Hague University, Bert van den Bergh