Suffering as a Lifelong Companion: A Phenomenological-Hermeneutic Study of Men Living With Severe Psychiatric Illness

Abstract

Accumulation of suffering in later life due to severe psychiatric illness has received surprisingly little interest in nursing research. Suffering in daily living seems to be more demanding for men, a phenomenon still debated in the literature. This phenomenological-hermeneutic study aims at describing and interpreting the perspectives of adult men and their experiences of suffering in daily living with severe psychiatric illness, diagnosed as schizophrenia. Data were collected in dialogical conversations with four men aged between 20 and 40 years, living alone in northern Norway. The themes created from the structural understanding illuminate the participants’ suffering as simultaneously struggling against the grasp of the illness and for reshaping the future. The theoretical interpretation unfolds the multidimensionality of their suffering and the need for confirmation of the suffering and reconciliation with the losses from illness, thus making reorientation to the future possible.

On Bender's orientation to models: Towards a philosophical debate on covering laws, theory, emergence and mechanisms in nursing science

“…Moreover, explaining the integration of everyday life with continuing illness experiences requires a covering law to achieve explanatory power (Cartwright et al, 2020). Kasén and Bondas (2022) read off the nursing practice implications of their composite description of young men's experiences through their theoretical lenses. However, their composite description can be brought closer to the young men's actual experiences by reducing it to Kasén and Bondas' intermediate inductive themes.…”

“…The reshaping of life in reconciliation with the illness may take place. Living a fuller life while still suffering from the illness as a lifelong companion can be a probable future (Kasén & Bondas, 2022, p. 9) If a caring relationship is a bounded dyadic interpersonal system, Kasén and Bondas (2022) conclusion implies a social mechanism Bender (2018) could accept. If this is correct, it is possible to rewrite Kasén and Bondas' conclusion.…”

“…Such mechanistic talk is counterproductive because, despite Kasén and Bondas's (2022) efforts, it objectifies the young men's experiences and displaces their accounts of living with schizophrenia. The moral of this example is that the mechanisms in models approach adds nothing to first-person accounts of lived experience.…”

“…Consider a recent article published in the Q1 journal Global Qualitative Nursing Research . Kasén and Bondas (2022) report on their study of suffering as a life‐long companion of men living with severe psychiatric illness. Their phenomenological‐hermeneutic study escapes any received view of science trappings.…”

“…The reshaping of life in reconciliation with the illness may take place. Living a fuller life while still suffering from the illness as a lifelong companion can be a probable future (Kasén & Bondas, 2022, p. 9)…”