The lifeworld of people who ruminate: a qualitative phenomenological study

Ruminations are persistent, repetitive, and often distressing thoughts centered on negative events, mood states, and psychiatric symptoms. Recognized as a maladaptive cognitive process, ruminating contributes to the onset and persistence of psychiatric disorders and is strongly linked to negative emotional states, self-criticism, and suicidality. Despite its clinical significance, a comprehensive, phenomenological understanding of ruminations remains lacking.

This study aims to provide a detailed, descriptive account of ruminations from the perspective of lifeworld analysis, focusing on embodiment, space, time, emotions, social relationships, and values. The goal is to enhance clinical understanding of the lived experience of ruminating and generate hypotheses for future research.

A qualitative phenomenological approach was employed, combining micro-phenomenological interviews and lifeworld analysis. Data were collected from 51 participants, including both normative and clinical samples. A total of 107 interviews were conducted, focusing on 79 experiential episodes.

Ruminating is an epistemic practice, driven by a need to resolve uncertainty and create meaning. Ruminations are triggered by a collapse of commonsense understanding, leading to intellectualization of daily life and detachment from intuitive or embodied responses. Ruminative episodes are characterized by feelings of paralysis, emptiness, and problematic relationships with knowledge.

Rather than being a maladaptive pattern of thinking, ruminating appears to constitute a complex lifeworld. This observation calls for reconceptualization of ruminations from a unified symptom towards a system of interrelated and extended altered experiences.