Empirical findings I: Bracketed meaning units of experiences of lonelines

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Background of the study

The experience of loneliness is a familiar experience to most people. Perese and Wolf (2005) found that more than half of people suffering from mental illness are lonely. They defined loneliness as the subjective state associated with social isolation and lack of desired relationships. My interest in the study of loneliness came about through my experience in working as a clinical psychologist in a psychiatric hospital. In my psychotherapeutic work with patients at the hospital I have come to realize how central the experience of loneliness is in the lives of psychiatric patients. It was often a theme in psychotherapy sessions with patients.
During some of these sessions the experience of loneliness would be described in great detail and appeared to be an experience with which some patients are very familiar. This first-hand experience of loneliness as presented by the patients inspired me to read further on the phenomenon of loneliness. Through these experiences I became interested in investigating the experience of loneliness by psychiatric patients further through qualitative research methods. I became particularly interested in the meanings present in the experiences of loneliness as experienced by psychiatric patients. According to Nilsson et al. (2006) there is a surprising lack of theme-focused discussions of loneliness within the field of developmental psychology and psychiatric professional literature.
Although research has been done on the phenomenon of loneliness (Peplau & Perlman 1982) very little research has focused on the psychiatric patient‟s experience of loneliness and the meanings they attach to it, especially from an existential phenomenological perspective (Lee et al. 1994; Rokach 1988a). Following the literature review it also became apparent that the phenomenon of loneliness and the meanings thereof has not adequately been addressed up to the present. The main goal of the study was to uncover the complexities and diversities in the experiences of loneliness by psychiatric patients. These findings can contribute to the existing understanding of loneliness and may provide a framework to the way loneliness can be understood. In addition this study hopes to stimulate more research into the phenomenon of loneliness specifically in the psychiatric context.
The value of such research is supported by Heinrich and Gullone (2006), who calls for more focused research and clinical attention to loneliness. This study turns the focus to the subjective lived experience of loneliness by psychiatric patients and will hopefully create increased awareness among treating professionals of the value of a focus on the personal lived world experience of psychiatric patients. More over this study also hopes to stimulate further research into the phenomenological qualities of loneliness as well as how the meanings in the experience of loneliness can be viewed through various existential phenomenological lenses.

Defining loneliness

Literature on the topic covers a vast number of disciplines, from philosophy to theology; psychiatry and psychology (Mijuskovic 1979). Though an extensive body of literature exists on the topic of loneliness a limited number of studies focused specifically on the experiences of loneliness as viewed through existential phenomenological lenses. Defining loneliness is a challenging task. The Oxford online dictionary (2014) defines being lonely as a state of having no friends or companions but also refers to isolation. This however seems to be a very limited definition and does not quite capture the essence of loneliness, as this study will also reveal. In taking a more existential stance towards loneliness, Yalom (1980) stated that the clinician, in their psychotherapeutic work with patients often encounter three types of loneliness: interpersonal, intrapersonal and existential. He continues to define these various types of isolation.
Interpersonal isolation is generally experienced as loneliness and refers to isolation from other individuals. Intrapersonal isolation he referred to as a process whereby one partitions off parts of oneself. In essence this means excluding experiences in parts of one‟s conscious awareness and makes parts of the psyche inaccessible to the self. Existential isolation refers to an unbridgeable gap between oneself and any other being. It also refers to being separate from one‟s world. This third type of loneliness can be described as a separation from the world, where the person is confronted with anxiety in the face of nothingness, but also his own freedom (Yalom 1980).

Table of Contents :

• Chapter 1: Introduction
  • 1.1. Background of the study
  • 1.2. The research aims
  • 1.2.1. The first research question
  • 1.2.2. The second research question
  • 1.3. The phenomenon of loneliness
  • 1.3.1. Defining loneliness
  • 1.3.2. Universality and pervasiveness of loneliness
  • 1.3.3. Loneliness in the psychiatric context
  • 1.4. Methodological prelude
  • 1.5. Outline of the dissertation
• Chapter 2: Methodology
  • 2.1. Phenomenology as research method
  • 2.2. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
  • i. Aim
  • ii. Bracketing
  • iii. The participants
  • iv. Data collection and storing
  • v. Data analysis
  • 2.3. Ethical considerations
  • 2.4. Existential phenomenological lenses
  • 2.4. Summary
• Chapter 3: Existential Phenomenological lenses
  • 3.1. Key contributions by some thinkers in existentialism and phenomenology
  • 3.1.1. Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)
  • 3.1.2. Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
  • 3.1.3. Franz Brentano (1838-1917)
  • 3.1.4. Edmund Husserl (1859-1938)
  • 3.1.5. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
  • 3.1.6. Karl Jaspers (1883- 1969)
  • 3.1.7. Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)
  • 3.1.8. Martin Buber (1878-1965)
  • 3.1.9. Max Scheler (1878-1965)
  • 3.1.10. Paul Tillich (1886-1965)
  • 3.1.11. Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973)
  • 3.1.12. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
  • 3.1.13. Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961)
  • 3.1.14. Viktor Frankl (1905-1997)
  • 3.2. The Existential phenomenological lenses
  • 3.2.1. The life-world existentials
  • 3.2.2. The four existential dimensions of existence
• Chapter 4: Empirical findings I: Bracketed meaning units of experiences of loneliness
  • 4.1. Participant
  • 4.2. Participant
  • 4.3. Participant
  • 4.4. Participant
  • 4.5. Participant
  • 4.6. Participant
• Chapter 5: Empirical findings II: Umbrella themes from the bracketed meaning units of experiences of loneliness
  • 5.1. Creativity in loneliness
  • 5.2. Fantasies
  • 5.3. Experiences of rejection
  • 5.4. Interpersonal withdrawal
  • 5.5. Temporality of loneliness
  • 5.6. Metaphors of loneliness
  • 5.7. Insider – outsider experience
  • 5.8. Unique experiences
  • 5.9. Loneliness and empathic understanding
  • 5.10. Loss of significant relationships
  • 5.11. Loneliness and psychiatric symptoms
  • 5.12. The experience of being alone and feeling lonely have different qualities
  • 5.13. Loneliness as call to action
  • 5.14. Interpersonal dimensions of loneliness
  • 5.15. Loneliness and psychiatric illness experience
  • 5.16. Summary
• Chapter 6: Applying existential phenomenological lenses to the meanings in the experiences of loneliness
  • 6.1. The Hermeneutics
  • 6.2. The Life-world existentials as a phenomenological lens on loneliness
  • 6.2.1. Spatiality
  • 6.2.2. Temporality
  • 6.2.3. Corporeality
  • 6.2.4. Relationality
  • 6.2.5. Spirituality
  • 6.2.6. Summary
  • Figure 2: Meanings of loneliness in the life-world existentials
  • 6.3. The four existential dimensions of existence as phenomenological lens on loneliness
  • 6.3.1. Eigenwelt (Self-experience)
  • 6.3.2. Mitwelt (Experience of others)
  • 6.3.3. Umwelt (Experience of world)
  • 6.3.4. Überwelt (Experiencing the spiritual)
  • 6.3.5. Summary
  • Figure 3: Meanings of loneliness in the dimensions of existence
• Chapter 7: Appraisal and implications of the study
  • 7.1. The dimension of the mitwelt and the life-world existential of relationality
  • 7.1.1. Relationality
  • 7.1.2. Interpersonal withdrawal
  • 7.1.3. The insider-outsider experience
  • 7.1.4. Loss of significant relationships
  • 7.1.5. Experiences of rejection
  • 7.1.6. Loneliness and empathic understanding
  • 7.1.7. Other interpersonal experiences
  • 7.2. The dimension of the eigenwelt and the life-world existential of temporality
  • 7.2.1. Temporality
  • 7.2.2. Creativity in loneliness
  • 7.2.3. Fantasies
  • 7.2.4. Loneliness and psychiatric illness experience
  • 6.2.4. Other personal experiences
  • 7.3. The dimension of the umwelt and the life-world existential of spatiality and corporeality
  • 7.3.1. Spatiality
  • 7.3.2. Corporeality
  • 7.3.3. Loneliness as a call to action
  • 7.3.4. Loneliness and psychiatric symptoms
  • 7.3.5. Being alone and feeling lonely
  • 7.3.6. Other experiences of the world around
  • 7.4. The dimension of the überwelt and the life-world existential of spirituality
  • 7.5. Trustworthiness
  • 7.5.1. Credibility
  • 7.5.2. Transferability
  • 7.5.3. Dependability
  • 7.5.4. Confirmability
  • 7.5.5. Authenticity
  • 7.5.6. Coherence
  • 7.5.7. Sampling adequacy
  • 7.5.8. Ethical validation
  • 7.5.9. Substantive validation
  • 7.5.10. Saturation of data
  • 7.5.11. Creativity
  • 7.6. Constraints and strengths of the study
  • 7.7. Implications for practice and future research
  • 7.8. Final comments
  • References

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Meanings of loneliness: subjective experiences of psychiatric patients