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Published on: March 2, 2015
The meaning of being suicidal - a reflective lifeworld research
Tanja Eriksson1, Tabita Sellin1, Maria Fogelkvist1
1Department of Psychiatry, Region Örebro County, University Health Care Research Center, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Örebro University, Örebro, SE, Sweden.
Purpose:
What drives a person towards death and what it entails to try to kill oneself is not fully understood. This study aimed to examine suicidality as a phenomenon, and to elucidate the essential meaning of being suicidal.
Methods:
Applying Reflective Lifeworld Research, the phenomenon of being suicidal was explored through interviews with seven adult suicide attempt survivors (4 men, 3 women; aged 18-54) with various diagnoses. Interviews were analysed using meaning-oriented analysis.
Results:
The four essential structures Fragile vitality versus inherent lethality, suicidal isolation, incentive of death and surrendering to death constitutes the essence of being suicidal. Being suicidal is a movement from everyday struggle for meaning and value in a perceived meaningless existence, into a fixed suicidal isolation marked by unbearable psychological pain, conviction of worthlessness and exclusion, paralyzing forces and cognitive-existential shutdown. The transition from thought to action is shaped in silent solitude by the incentive of death rather than will or choice. The inner drive towards death appears as a compelling, liberating, inevitable force impossible to resist on one's own.
Conclusion:
This study provides deep understanding about the suicidal mind which may be used in development of assessment instruments and interventions for suicide prevention.
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