This qualitative study investigated the experiences of twelve adults who discovered new information about the identity of one or both parents in adolescence or later. Some had grown up in adoptive or step-families; others had been conceived using donated sperm. Participants were interviewed once about their experiences when the information was revealed, and the effect they perceived it had over time. The transcribed interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, Jarman & Osborn, 1999). The findings indicated that for many participants the impact of unplanned revelations was considerable, and the emotional repercussions often persisted for many years. The information affected participant's perceptions of their sense of self, and who they were in relation to others. The effects of this appeared to reverberate through many parts of the family system. It was suggested that concealment may have affected early parent-child relationships and contributed to feelings of difference or not belonging. The secret was perceived to have affected family communication before the revelation, and this was often difficult afterwards. Findings were considered in relation to identity development, attachment theory and social constructionist perspectives. A tentative model of the processes by which people integrate this information was proposed. Suggestions were made regarding therapeutic work with individuals and families after revelations of this nature, and those considering the opening of such secrets. Further research in this area is indicated and is particularly relevant to families created through gamete donation.

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This novel is a work of fiction that explores the relationships between three women in the remote mountain village of Gildone in Southern Italy. It begins in 1956 after the protagonist, Liliana Farinacci, discovers she is pregnant. Her husband, Domenico, leaves Italy for Venezuela to find work. Before marrying Domenico, Liliana's former boyfriend, Raphael, confesses his love for her and leaves to better himself in Venezuela. Abandoned and alone Liliana escapes her sorrows at the family bakery that she runs. The novel follows Liliana, the birth of her daughter, Francesca, and the birth of her granddaughter Anna. Liliana copes with all the gossip in the small town. She also learns that the one secret her mother kept from her might have made a difference in her life's choices and happiness. / by Gloria Panzera. / Preliminary p. vii numbered as "1". / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cancer killer in the United States and the third most common cancer in African American men and women. Though the overall death rates have declined, this reduction in mortality is smaller for African Americans than for Whites. Factors that are protective against colorectal cancer include occupational or recreational physical activity, a diet high in fruits and vegetables, and colorectal cancer screening with removal of polyps (polypectomy) before they progress to cancer. Compliance with CRC screening recommendations requires people to know if a first-degree relative (parent, sibling, and child) or second-degree relative (aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, and grandparent) has been diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Little is known about how patients disclose this information to their relatives and what type of information is disclosed when disclosure takes place. The role of the family has long been overlooked in research on African American health screening behavior despite the fact that family interventions have been known to produce favorable outcomes in diet, nutrition, and exercise. This qualitative study explored the disclosure process among African American colorectal cancer survivors and FDRs with whom they shared their diagnosis. Of special interest was the role of social support in the disclosure process and the criteria used to decide which relatives to tell. Findings from this study will be used to advance the knowledge about the dynamics of CRC disclosure to first-degree relatives in African American families and ultimately increase CRC screening in relatives.

Tumbleweed Road is a novel that began as a short story in a fiction workshop many years ago. The novel is set in the contemporary American South and traces one tumultuous summer in the life of a 14-year-old girl named Carolina Wells. The plot of the story is as follows: Carolina, a 14-year-old girl from Crow, Florida, does not understand her mother and remembers little about her past. In the story, we meet Carolina, her mother, "Mama," and two brothers, Johnny and Austin. Carolina does not understand her mother and her wild nature. At home, Carolina is forced to care for her two younger brothers. Carolina's father is long gone out of the picture, and Carolina was always told by her mother that she has no father - no one worth speaking of, anyway. Carolina can't remember why her father is gone, but remembers the fight that caused him to leave, and she blames her mother entirely for his leaving when she was just a toddler. Carolina questions her Mama about the disappearance of her father, but she refuses to even speak his name. Carolina desperately wants normalcy, family, and love - through a series of life-changing events involving a range of characters, including a spiritual woman across Tumbleweed Road, a mysterious girl named West and an old friend named Cade, this novel is about Carolina's quest to find her place in this world.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-09-03T12:59:03Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Daniela Pupo Barbosa Bianchi.pdf: 3174413 bytes, checksum: 8a6adc765c98288926ec9b5434cd353a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-03T12:59:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Daniela Pupo Barbosa Bianchi.pdf: 3174413 bytes, checksum: 8a6adc765c98288926ec9b5434cd353a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-08-15 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / In clinical psychotherapy we observe the frequent presence of secrets. Many of these contents interfere directly or indirectly in the life and constitution of subjectivity of the patient. From the point of view of the Family Therapy approach, secrets are considered systemic phenomena, being part of relationships and forming dyads, triangles, alliances, divisions and disruptions. It is a common finding that family secrets involve facts, events or actions that are considered socially shameful and whose disclosure would have bad consequences for the family. In view of the above, this study aimed at contributing to the understanding of the role of secrets within a family system from a trans-generational perspective. The overall goal was to understand how the participant perceived and attributed meaning to the secrets in his life trajectory. The specific objectives were to analyze how the participant perceived and attributed meaning to the transmission of secrets through the generations as well as to analyze how the relationship between secrets and family myths was established. To achieve the proposed objectives, a qualitative research was developed based on an instrumental case study. The instruments employed were a semi-structured interview, the family play genogram and the sandplay. The results, analyzed from a systemic perspective, indicate that the participant understands that the secrets interfered directly in his life and in the construction of his identity. He realizes that the transmission of these contents, throughout the generations, took place by oral transmission of beliefs and values, as well as by the observation of behaviors and attitudes. As for the family myths, it was possible to infer that they were directly related to the family secrets in a feedback mechanism, by which these phenomena sustained and fed each other. In the life history of the participant, there is a central axis also revealed by this study, that is, the uprooting. The diaspora and the experience of expatriation - that have caused such uprooting - activated the familiar mythology that has prompted the phenomenon of the secret in the search of system protection / Nos atendimentos clínicos em psicoterapia podemos observar a presença frequente de segredos. Muitos desses conteúdos interferem direta ou indiretamente na vida e na constituição da subjetividade da pessoa atendida. Sob o ponto de vista da abordagem da Terapia Familiar, os segredos são considerados fenômenos sistêmicos, uma vez que estão ligados aos relacionamentos, formando díades, triângulos, alianças, divisões e rompimentos. É comum perceber que os segredos familiares envolvem fatos, acontecimentos ou ações que são considerados socialmente vergonhosos e cuja revelação teria consequências ruins para aquela família. Diante do exposto, este trabalho visa contribuir para a compreensão do papel do segredo dentro de um sistema familiar a partir de um olhar transgeracional, por meio de um estudo de caso instrumental. O objetivo geral foi compreender como o participante percebeu e significou os segredos em sua trajetória de vida. Os objetivos específicos foram: analisar como o participante percebeu e significou a transmissão do segredo através das gerações bem como analisar como se estabeleceu, nesse caso, a relação entre segredos e mitos familiares. Para atingir os objetivos propostos, foi utilizada uma abordagem qualitativa de pesquisa, a partir da perspectiva sistêmica, desenvolvida com a utilização de entrevista semiestruturada, genograma lúdico e sandplay. Os resultados apontam que o participante percebe que os segredos interferiram diretamente em sua vida e na construção de sua identidade, sendo certo que, para ele, a transmissão desses conteúdos, ao longo das gerações, deu-se por transmissão oral de crenças e valores, bem como pela observação de comportamentos e atitudes. Quanto aos mitos familiares foi possível inferir que, na presente pesquisa, estão diretamente ligados aos segredos familiares em um mecanismo de retroalimentação, por meio do qual esses fenômenos se sustentam e se alimentam reciprocamente. Há, ainda, na história de vida do participante, um eixo central revelado pelo estudo, qual seja, o desenraizamento. A diáspora e a experiência de expatriação – promotores desse desenraizamento – ativaram a mitologia familiar que acabou por desencadear o fenômeno do segredo na busca de proteção do sistema

Thesis (MPH.) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / Background: Disclosure of Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV) is still a challenge to people living with the disease because of the discrimination, stigma and judgemental attitudes. Women prefer to keep their illness to themselves and make it a secret. The revealing of HIV status relies on an individual who is living with the illness. The concept of non-disclosure is a vital issue that threatens immediate families in which there are people, especially women battling the non-disclosure of their HIV status. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to explore and describe the experiences of concealing HIV positive status to the immediate family by women living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus at the selected villages in Limpopo Province. Methods: The qualitative and descriptive phenomenological method was followed. Due to saturation, ten women participated after being selected through purposive sampling from the database with the consideration of the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews in Sepedi. The data was transcribed, translated and analysed through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Results: WLW-HIV continue to manage to live with a secret about their HIV status due to the unpleasant feelings they hold about the illness continue, still pointing fingers and sceptical about disclosing, particularly to their children. They further tell lies about their illness and hide their medications away from the members of their family. The reasons about concealing their status include among others fear of prejudice, lack of trust, fear of abandonment and rejection, fear of blame and humiliation, denial, misconceptions that people still hold about HIV and the view of it as a predicament. Others conceal because of the lack of support and the target of the disclosure. xii Conclusion: The outcomes of the study have uncovered that there is still less awareness by members of the society about HIV/AIDS, which puts pressure on the WLW-HIV to effectively deal with an HIV positive status and disclose to their family members. These factors contribute to concealment and compromise the level of support that WLW-HIV would get from their family members, further impacting negatively on adherence. Keywords: Concealment, HIV/AIDS, Phenomenological study, Stigma and Immediate family.

Family secrets can be a driving force, whether explicitly or implicitly, for many seeking therapy. Despite this, there is little qualitative research examining how individuals experience and make sense of their family secrets. Through this study the researcher examined the phenomenon of family secrets amongst five individuals from different families. Qualitative research using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) along with a Bowen Family Systems Theory approach was used to explore multigenerational family secrets. Purposive sampling was used to select that participants and data was collected through semi-structured interviews. A genogram was also drafted to identify multigenerational relationships and the history of family secrets. By exploring and mapping the functions of multigenerational family secrets, the researcher examined in detail how participants make sense of their lived experience with holding a family secret. Through semi-structured interviews, the researcher was able to extract the meanings found within keeping a secret and the functions that secrets serve within families. Six superordinate themes were identified: what’s in a secret, living with a secret, finding meaning, anxiety and differentiation, multigenerational transmission process, and functions of family secrets. The data collected and analysis reflecting the experiences shared by the five participants add to the existing literature on the phenomenon of keeping family secrets and details the implications for the emotional system and marriage and family therapy. By mapping the hidden, a new conversation on the taboos of family secrets can lead to new hope for individuals and generations to come.

L’objectif de ce mémoire est la tentative d’une lecture psychanalytique de certains passages de deux livres L’Oiseau des origines (Gallo, 1974) et Le Testament français (Makine, 1995) afin de trouver le sens et les enjeux cachés dans les textes. Les livres racontent la quête d’identité des deux personnages principaux respectifs : les jeunes hommes Thomas et Aliocha. Avec la théorie de secrets de famille comme point de référence, nous allons suivre Thomas et Aliocha dans leurs parcours vers l’individuation.Notre première hypothèse est que la quête d’identité de Thomas et d’Aliocha s’est faite en passant par l’exagération, voire la fabulation, puisqu’ils grandissent dans des milieux familiaux où les autres leur cachent leurs vraies origines. Cette hypothèse s’est révélée inexacte. Notre seconde hypothèse est que leur identité, influencée par l’existence des secrets de famille, implique un personnage cachottier et dissimulé ayant des difficultés à distinguer entre la vie réelle et les rêves. Cette hypothèse a été partiellement corroborée par la lecture. Les deux personnages principaux du corpus se sont avérés avoir un personnage cachottier, avec une tendance à créer de nouveaux secrets. Toutefois, Thomas dans L’Oiseau des origines était le seul à avoir des problèmes à distinguer ce qui est réel de ce qui ne l’est pas.Un autre but, celui purement littéraire, est de vérifier s’il pourrait y avoir une influence de l’écriture de Patrick Modiano dans l’écriture d’Andreï Makine. Nous avons trouvé un nombre suffisant d’exemples textuels montrant cette influence pour qu’il soit justifié d’entamer d’autres recherches en ce domaine.Une réflexion sur l’influence qu’a pu avoir ses deux romans sur la psychologie des lecteurs sera faite. / This study proposes an attempt to a psychoanalytical reading of some parts of the two novels L’Oiseau des origines (Gallo, 1974) and Le Testament français (Makine, 1995), hoping to unveil some hidden issues. The novels recount the lives of two young men, Thomas and Aliocha, and their respective search for identity. The framework of family secrets offers an appreciation of the role played by the family background on the formation of their charactersThe first hypothesis is that the two young men’s identity search is marked by exaggeration or even fabrication since they grew up in family environments where others hid their true origins from them. That hypothesis was not confirmed. The second hypothesis is that they, influenced by the existence of family secrets, have developed a secretive and concealed character with problems to distinguish real life from dreams. That hypothesis was partly confirmed. The study proved that they have developed a secretive character with a predilection to create further secrets. However, only Thomas was found to have problems to distinguish real life from dreams.