The Construction of Corporeality in the Narratives of Women who Experienced a Burn Injury

Survival after severe burn injuries has significantly increased due to advances in medical technology over the past decades. However, burns remain one of the most common and dangerous types of injuries, ranking fourth globally in terms of frequency. This issue is particularly acute in the context of childhood burn trauma. Individuals who have undergone such experiences face a complex process of adapting to their altered bodily existence as a result of substantial changes in appearance. Using a narrative approach, 19 semi-structured interviews were collected and analyzed from young women aged 20 to 34 who had experienced burn injuries of a sufficiently severe degree (up to 4B) and with areas of burns ranging from 20 to 80% of the body. Based on the analysis of empirical material, three models of narrative construction of corporeality were identified for a more multidimensional understanding of the continuous process of searching and making sense of one's own body by women after burn trauma: "body-as-barrier", "body-as-focus", and "body-as-balance".