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Lived-through past, experienced present, anticipated future: Understanding “existential loss” in the context of life-limiting illness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2015

Denise A. Harris
Denise A. Harris*
Affiliation:
School of Health Sciences, University of Salford, Salford, England
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Denise A. Harris, Room C411, School of Health Sciences, University of Salford, Salford, M5 4WT, England. E-mail: d.harris@salford.ac.uk.
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Abstract

Objective:

Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is a rare, devastating neurodegenerative disease of middle/later life, usually presenting in the sixth and seventh decades (McDermot & Shaw, 2008). People have to wait many months to receive a diagnosis of MND (Donaghy et al., 2008), and during this period they have already experienced the degenerative nature that characterizes MND (Bolmsjö, 2001). However, information on the meaning of life with MND through time is limited. The aim of the present research was to answer the research question “What does it mean to be a person living through the illness trajectory of MND?” and to research the phenomenon of existence when given a diagnosis of MND and in the context of receiving healthcare.

Method:

Hermeneutic phenomenology, inspired by the philosophers Heidegger and Gadamer, informed the methodological approach employed, which asked people to tell their story from when they first thought something untoward was happening to them. The hermeneutic analysis involved a five-stage process in order to understand (interpret) the lifeworld1 of four people diagnosed with MND, and a lifeworld perspective helped to make sense of the meaning of existence when given a terminal diagnosis of MND.

Results:

The concept of “existential loss” identified in relation to MND was the loss of past ways of being-in-the-world, and the loss of embodiment, spatiality, and the future.

Significance of results:

The concept of existential loss requires closer attention by healthcare professionals from the time of diagnosis and on through the illness trajectory. The study findings are conceptualized into a framework, which when used as a clinical tool may prompt healthcare professionals to focus on their patients' existential loss and existential concerns. This research adds to the existing literature calling for a lifeworld approach to healthcare.

Keywords

Existential lossMartin HeideggerHans-Georg GadamerExistential-hermeneutic phenomenology
Type
Original Articles
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 13 , Issue 6 , December 2015 , pp. 1579 - 1594
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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