3,290
Views
50
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Life Meaning and Life Weariness

Being disconnected from life: meanings of existential loneliness as narrated by frail older people

, , &
Pages 1357-1364 | Received 16 Feb 2017, Accepted 25 Jun 2017, Published online: 17 Jul 2017

References

  • Adelbratt, S., & Strang, P. (2000). Death anxiety in brain tumour patients and their spouses. Palliative Medicine, 14(6), 499–507. doi: 10.1191/026921600701536426
  • Ågren Bolmsjö, I. (2002). Existential issues in palliative care (Doctoral dissertation, Lund University, Department of Health Sciences, Lund, Sweden). Retrieved fromhttps://lup.lub.lu.se/search/publication/01043153-e916-4912-a2e6-89d7bff0d4b9
  • Andersson, L. (1998). Loneliness research and interventions: A review of the literature. Aging & Mental Health, 2(4), 264–274. doi: 10.1080/13607869856506
  • Andersson, M., Hallberg, I. R., & Edberg, A.-K. (2008). Old people receiving municipal care, their experiences of what constitutes a good life in the last phase of life: A qualitative study. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 45(6), 818–828. doi: 10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2007.04.003
  • Avieli, H., Mushkin, P., Araten-Bergman, T., & Band-Winterstein, T. (2016). Aging with schizophrenia: A lifelong experience of multidimensional losses and suffering. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 30(2), 230–236. doi: 10.1016/j.apnu.2015.11.005
  • Beauchamp, T. L., & Childress, J. F. (2013). Principles of Biomedical Ethics (7th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Beck, I., Törnquist, A., Broström, L., & Edberg, A.-K. (2012). Having to focus on doing rather than being: Nurse assistants’ experience of palliative care in municipal residential care settings. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 49(4), 455–464. doi: 10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2011.10.016
  • Boston, P., Bruce, A., & Schreiber, R. (2011). Existential suffering in the palliative care setting: An integrated literature review. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 41(3), 604–618. doi: 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2010.05.010
  • Broström, M. (2014). Äldre människors föreställningar om den egna framtiden, döendet och döden [Older people's future, dying and death] (Doctoral dissertation no. 612). Linköping University, Department of Social and Welfare Studies, Norrköping. Retrieved from http://liu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A714849&dswid=-6253
  • Browall, M., Henoch, I., Melin-Johansson, C., Strang, S., & Danielson, E. (2014). Existential encounters: Nurses’ descriptions of critical incidents in end-of-life cancer care. European Journal of Oncology Nursing, 18(6), 636–644. doi: 10.1016/j.ejon.2014.06.001
  • Brown, A. S. (1996). The social processes of aging and old age (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
  • Cacioppo, J. T., & Patrick, W. (2008). Loneliness: Human nature and the need for social connection. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.
  • Carter, M. A. (2000). Abiding loneliness: An existential perspective on loneliness. Second Opinion, 3, 37–54.
  • Dykstra, P. A., van Tilburg, T. G., & Gierveld, J. de J. (2005). Changes in older adult loneliness: Results from a seven-year longitudinal study. Research on Aging, 27(6), 725–747. doi: 10.1177/0164027505279712
  • Edberg, A.-K., & Bolmsjö, I. Study protocol: Exploring existential loneliness among frail older people. The development phase of the LONE study. Submitted for publication.
  • Ettema, E. J., Derksen, L. D., & Leeuwen, E. V. (2010). Existential loneliness and end-of-life care: A systematic review. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, 31(2), 141–169. doi: 10.1007/s11017-010-9141-1
  • Frankl, V. E. (1987). Man's search for meaning: An introduction to logotherapy (Revised and enlarged ed.). London: Hodder and Stoughton. (Original work published in 1959).
  • Frankl, V. E. (2014). The will to meaning: Foundations and applications of logotherapy. London: Penguin. (Original work published in 1969).
  • Fried, L. P., Tangen, C. M., Walston, J., Newman, A. B., Hirsch, C., Gottdiener, J., & McBurnie, M. A. (2001). Frailty in older adults: Evidence for a phenotype. The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 56(3), M146–M157. doi: 10.1093/gerona/56.3.M146
  • Håkanson, C., Öhlén, J., Morin, L., & Cohen, J. (2015). A population-level study of place of death and associated factors in Sweden. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 43(7), 744–751. doi: 10.1177/1403494815595774
  • Hallberg, I. R. (2004). Death and dying from old people's point of view. A literature review. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, 16(2), 87–103.
  • Inglehart, R., & Welzel, C. (2015). Welzel-Inglehart cultural map. World values survey. Retrieved fromhttp://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSContents.jsp
  • Kvale, S. (2007). Doing interviews (S. E. Torhell, Trans., 3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
  • Kvale, S., & Brinkmann, S. (2014). Den kvalitativa forskningsintervjun [Qualitative research]. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
  • Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
  • Lindseth, A., & Norberg, A. (2004). A phenomenological hermeneutical method for researching lived experience. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 18(2), 145–153. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-6712.2004.00258.x
  • Løgstrup, K. E. (1997). The ethical demand. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press. (Original work published in 1956).
  • Lundmark, M. (2006). Attitudes to spiritual care among nursing staff in a Swedish oncology clinic. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 15(7), 863–874. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2006.01189.x
  • Luo, Y., Hawkley, L. C., Waite, L. J., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2012). Loneliness, health, and mortality in old age: A national longitudinal study. Social Science & Medicine, 74(6), 907–914. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.11.028
  • Mayers, A. M., & Svartberg, M. (2001). Existential loneliness: A review of the concept, its psychosocial precipitants and psychotherapeutic implications for HIV-infected women. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 74, 539.
  • McCormack, B., & McCance, T. (2016). Person-centred practice in nursing and health care: Theory and practice. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
  • Merleau-Ponty, M. (2002). Phenomenology of perception. London: Routledge. (Original work published in 1968).
  • Mijuskovic, B. (1980). Loneliness and suicide. Journal of Social Philosophy, 11(1), 11–17.
  • Mijuskovic, B. L. (1979). Loneliness in philosophy, psychology and literature. Assen, NL: Van Gorcum.
  • Moustakas, C. E. (1961). Loneliness. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
  • National Board of Health and Welfare. (2011). De mest sjuka äldre – avgränsning av gruppen [The most ill elderly – demarcation of the group]. Stockholm: National Board of Health and Welfare.
  • National Board of Health and Welfare. (2015). Sveriges officiella statistik. Statistik – Hälso-och Sjukvård. Dödsorsaker 2014 [Official Statistics of Sweden. Statistics – Health and medical care. Causes of death 2014]. Stockholm: National Board of Health and Welfare.
  • National Board of Health and Welfare. (2016). Vård och omsorg av äldre – Lägesrapport 2016 [Care and service for the elderly: Progress report 2016]. Stockholm: National Board of Health and Welfare.
  • Paterson, B. (2001). The shifting perspectives model of chronic illness. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 33(1), 21–26. doi: 10.1111/j.1547-5069.2001.00021.x
  • Paterson, B., Thorne, S., Crawford, J., & Tarko, M. (1999). Living with diabetes as a transformational experience. Qualitative Health Research, 9(6), 786–802. doi: 10.1177/104973299129122289
  • Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2013). Essentials of nursing research: Appraising evidence for nursing practice (8th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
  • Queen, T. L., Stawski, R. S., Ryan, L. H., & Smith, J. (2014). Loneliness in a day: Activity engagement, time alone, and experienced emotions. Psychology and Aging, 29(2), 297–305. doi: 10.1037/a0036889
  • Ricoeur, P. (1976). Interpretation theory: Discourse and the surplus of meaning. Fort Worth, TX: TCU Press.
  • Riessman, C. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
  • Rockwood, K. (2005). What would make a definition of frailty successful ? Age and Ageing, 34(5), 432–434. doi: 10.1093/ageing/afi146
  • Sand, L., & Strang, P. (2006). Existential loneliness in a palliative home care setting. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 9(6), 1376–1387. doi: 10.1089/jpm.2006.9.1376
  • Sand, L., Strang, P., & Milberg, A. (2008). Dying cancer patients’ experiences of powerlessness and helplessness. Supportive Care in Cancer, 16(7), 853–862. doi: 10.1007/s00520-007-0359-z
  • SCB, Statistics Sweden. (2016). Population statistics [Statistical database]. Retrieved from http://www.scb.se/en_/
  • Strandberg, G., Åström, G., & Norberg, A., (2002). Struggling to be/show oneself valuable and worthy to get care: One aspect of the meaning of being dependent on care – a study of one patient, his wife and two of his professional nurses. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 16(1), 43–51. doi: 10.1046/j.1471-6712.2002.00053.x
  • Strandberg, G., Norberg, A., & Jansson, L. (2003). Meaning of dependency on care as narrated by 10 patients. Research and Theory for Nursing Practice, 17(1), 65–84. doi: 10.1891/rtnp.17.1.65.53170
  • Strang, S., & Strang, P. (2001). Spiritual thoughts, coping and ‘sense of coherence’ in brain tumour patients and their spouses. Palliative Medicine, 15(2), 127–134. doi: 10.1191/026921601670322085
  • Tillich, P. (2000). The courage to be. London: Yale University Press. (Original work published in 1952).
  • van Wijngaarden, E., Leget, C., & Goossensen, A. (2015). Ready to give up on life: The lived experience of elderly people who feel life is completed and no longer worth living. Social Science & Medicine, 138, 257–264. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.05.015
  • World Medical Association. (2008). Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects. Ferney-Voltaire: Author.
  • Yalom, I. D., (1980). Existential psychotherapy. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.