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Drug addiction is a serious health problem. The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of the core of love when caring for patients suffering from addiction. The study had a hermeneutical approach. Four nurses working at a detoxification unit were interviewed. Data were interpreted using a hermeneutical text interpretation based on Gadamer's hermeneutics. The results revealed the core of love in four dimensions: love as an inner driving force, searching for the human being behind the addiction, faith in the inner power of human beings and love as a movement of giving and receiving. The hermeneutical interpretation revealed the core of love as sacrifice, showing that sacrifice is an ethical dimension and that sacrifice involves searching for the patient's ontological suffering. Sacrifice is connected to faith, and faith in love is decisive for a life without drugs. Sacrifice involves being mutual gifts to one another, a self-reinforcing motion of sacrifice that energizes the nurses to go on with their work.

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Scand J Caring Sci; 2013; 27; 449–459 The substance of love when encountering suffering: an interpretative research synthesis with an abductive approach Aim:  This study presents the results of an interpretative research synthesis undertaken to explore the essence of love when encountering suffering. The idea of caring as an expression of love and compassion belongs with ideas that have shaped caring for hundreds of years. Love and suffering are the core concepts in caring science and thus demand a basic research approach. Methods:  The synthesis was undertaken by the interpretation of 15 articles focusing on love in different aspects, but within a caring science perspective. The research process was guided by a hermeneutical perspective with an abductive approach. Results:  The substance of love, when encountering suffering, reveals itself in three themes: love as a holy power, love as fundamental for being and love as an ethical act, which are to be found, respectively, within three dimensions: love as holiness, love as a communion and love as an art. Love is a holy power and encompasses everything; it is the well of strength that heals. No human can exist without love: this points to the ethical responsibility one has as a neighbour. In the ethical act, love is evident in concrete caring actions. Conclusions:  The core of the substance of love within the three dimensions can be understood as agape. Agape connects and mirrors the dimensions, while at the same time it is clear that agape stems from and moves towards holiness, enabling love to be the ethical foundation when encountering suffering. Through the dimensions of love as communion and love as an art agape intertwine with eros forming caritas enabling the human being to move towards the dimension of holiness, which signifies becoming through suffering.