From the Insecure Body to Social Exclusion: A Qualitative Analysis of the Lifeworld of Patients with Epilepsy in Yazd

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 faculty of social science

2 FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

10.22059/jisr.2025.399648.1647

Abstract

Epilepsy is one of the chronic disorders of the nervous system that, in addition to its medical and biological dimensions, has extensive consequences in the daily and social lives of patients. This disease not only causes physical pain and disturbances in individual functioning but also affects mental health, family relationships, social activities, economic status, and patients’ participation in society. Epilepsy can be considered a type of “medico-social diagnosis” that simultaneously engages the biological body and places pressure on the social body. Accordingly, the present study, using a qualitative approach and grounded theory methodology, explores the lived experiences of patients with epilepsy in the city of Yazd. Data were collected through in-depth and semi-structured interviews with 14 patients identified through health centers and analyzed using the three stages of open, axial, and selective coding. The results indicate that the lived experience of these patients can be conceptualized within the central category of the “suspended lifeworld.” This experience is shaped by causal conditions such as “reproduction of semantic crisis” and “internalized stigma,” contextual conditions such as “bodily insecurity” and “collapse of the family’s emotional order,” and intervening factors such as “institutional discrimination,” “structural poverty,” and “living on the margins.” In confronting the consequences of the disease, the interviewees adopted strategies of “psychosocial adaptation and meaning-making of the illness” and “self-seclusion.” The findings indicate that epilepsy is not merely a neurological disorder but, as a socio-cultural issue, plays a significant role in shaping patients’ identity, agency, quality of life, and sense of belonging.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Social Studies and Research in Iran

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 17 June 2026

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