From Survivor to Hope Bearer: Introducing the Hope Bearer Identity Model Through the Narrative Case of Michele Hajal

Abstract

This study challenges the cultural dominance of the “survivor” identity in cancer discourse by exploring how hope is constructed in the lived narrative of Michele El Hajal, a young Lebanese woman facing terminal illness. It introduces the Hope Bearer Identity Model (HBIM), a multidimensional framework that reframes hope as an identity-centered practice. A retrospective single-case study analyzed 147 narrative segments from social media, interviews, and documentaries. Data were transcribed, translated, and thematically coded in NVivo. Structural validation included co-occurrence mapping and lexical clustering. Five interrelated constructs defined HBIM: Existential Anchoring, Narrative Bridging, Symbolic Activation, Dialogical Positioning, and Transpersonal Resonance, revealing hope as a dynamic identity practice rooted in spirituality, relational dialog, and communal transcendence. Structural analyses confirmed high thematic interdependence. HBIM extends existing hope and PTG theories by positioning hope as a performative, identity-constitutive process sustained through spiritual anchoring, narrative integration, symbolic ritualization, relational dialog, and transpersonal resonance, offering a culturally situated, clinically actionable framework for terminal illness contexts where survivor-centric narratives, and growth-after-adversity models prove insufficient.