PART ONE<br > The Cancer Experience<br >The emotional experiences associated with cancer and cancer<br >treatment are so painful and frightening that you may well recoil<br >from reading this first portion of the book. There is a great deal<br >of reassuring information in the sections that follow. But it is<br >0nly by examining our responses to cancer that we shall be able to<br >attain authentic reassurance about our ability to survive with a<br >renewed s， nse of personal competence. When we understand<br >these exp~:riences we can search for answers to the strange fact<br >that cancer frightens and horrifies us much more than other<br >diseases which are both more prevalent and more lethal. Only<br >then can we look at the origins of depression and at its hidden<br >relationship to anger. Only then can we come to know the<br >healing process of grief and thereby separate it from the passive<br >resignation of depression. These portraits of the cancer<br >experience will also expose many hidden fears which derive<br >disruptive power solely from our lack of awareness. Let us<br >therefore examine these experiences together and evolve an<br >understanding that will provide a foundation upon which<br >personal authority， competence， influence and meaning can be<br >developed and enlarged.<br >