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Grief as a transformative experience: Weaving through different lifeworlds after a loved one has completed suicide
Author(s) -
Fielden Jann M.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
international journal of mental health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.911
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1447-0349
pISSN - 1445-8330
DOI - 10.1046/j.1440-0979.2003.00271.x
Subject(s) - transformative learning , grief , phenomenology (philosophy) , hermeneutic phenomenology , psychology , psychotherapist , lived experience , psychoanalysis , nursing , medicine , developmental psychology , epistemology , philosophy
ABSTRACT Using Heidegger's hermeneutic phenomenology informed by van Manen's and Benner's work, this research is an exploration and interpretation of the lived experiences of family members since they lost a close family member to suicidal death. Data from in‐depth interviews with six participants, the researcher's journal entries and published literature were analysed. Findings gave rise to a grief model where suicide survivors moved through four modes of being‐in‐the‐world characterized by 13 lifeworlds or themes. Surviving suicide was a transformative process that in time enabled survivors to discover new ways of understanding and relating to the world. The findings have implications for nurses and counsellors working in the area of suicide bereavement.