Balancing sharing and distancing: spouses of people experiencing mental illness making meaning out of the core existential experience

ABSTRACT

This article examines the core existential experience in the narratives of the spouses and partners of people experiencing mental illness, and the way this core experience is linked to religious, spiritual and secular existential meaning making. A narrative approach was employed to conduct and analyse the interviews with 16 Finnish spouses and partners. The results represent the core existential experience of balancing sharing and distancing in relation to a spouse experiencing mental illness. Religious, spiritual and secular existential meaning making were employed as coping methods. The results are interpreted in the light of existential concerns discussed by the existential psychotherapists Viktor Frankl, Rollo May and Irvin Yalom. In health care, therapeutic and pastoral practices, the multidimensional nature of the core experience needs to be recognised.

KEYWORDS:

• Spouses of people experiencing mental illness
• existential concerns
• meaning making
• religious
• spiritual
• secular
• coping

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Jonna Marika Pauliina Ojalammi http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0371-7395

Notes

1 The term “spouses” is used throughout the paper.

2 In this article, the interview quotes are translated from Finnish by the author with consultation from an English language professional.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Olga and Vilho Linnamo Foundation [grant number 5000] and The Church Research Institute Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland [grant number 43460].