"Are We in Kansas Yet, Toto?" The Construction of Chronic Illness in Research

Abstract

This article is a discursive analysis of researchers' constructions of chronic illness and the implications of these for how we currently understand the experience of living with a chronic disease. For 2 decades, chronic illness research has been dominated by 3 main constructions of chronic illness: as generic, as static, and as decontextualized. These constructions have persisted despite recent empirical evidence that runs contrary to their underlying assumptions. Research that has upheld these constructions has provided a narrow, limited profile of the chronic illness experience, failing to account for the complexity, diversity, fluidity, and depth of the experience. The article concludes with a call for alternative constructions of chronic illness and directions for future research.