AllahabadThe main objective of this study is to examine the explanatory models which Indian women use to understand their life threatening diseases. Tbepaper also examines the linkages between these causal explanations and their psychological recovery. Earlier work has shown that in the Indian cultural setting, hospitalised patients attributed their illness more often to metaphysical beliefs. A sample of 132 adult cervical cancer patients from rural background was divided into three groups according to the stage of treatment (first week of radiation therapy, last week of radiation therapy, and subsequent check-up) and interviewed. The findings reveal thatpatients more often attributed their illness to metaphysical beliefs: fate, God's will, karma than to other factors. These factors, however, showed no clear linkages with psychological recovery, which was negatively correlated with attributions to family conditions, physical weakness and mental stress. Implications of these findings for providing better care to cancer patients are discussed.hen a life-threatening illness strikes the individual, the primary concern of the patient is searching and understanding the causes of such illness. Such causal understanding is essential to sustain hope of recovery and to decide the future course of action. Many studies (Radley, 1994) have shown that people not only seek medical explanations of their disease but also try to understand the disease within their social and cultural context. A commonsense undei standing of at UNIV NEBRASKA LIBRARIES on April 4, 2015 pds.sagepub.com Downloaded from