Existential Loneliness Questionnaire

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aviva M. Mayers ◽  
Siek-Toon Khoo ◽  
Martin Svartberg
Keyword(s):  
Existential Loneliness

George Tooker’s Altarpiece of Protest

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 537-560
Author(s):  
Kevin G. Grove
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Critique ◽  
Sacramental Theology ◽  
Final Word ◽  
Existential Loneliness ◽  
American Society

AbstractRenowned American protest painter George Tooker’s sacramental art opens new perspectives on the relation of the sacramental economy to modern cultural critique. Differing from extant scholarship and taking into account preparatory drawings, this article claims that George Tooker’s The Seven Sacraments altarpiece is best understood in continuity with the rest of the artist’s protest painting. This interpretation does not diminish the religious or conciliatory significance of Tooker’s masterwork but rather draws out its unique voice as a way of protesting the alone-while-together structures of American society. As western societies confront epidemics of loneliness amidst hyper-connectivity, Tooker suggests generative horizons by which sacramental theology might contribute to that conversation—not in posing a simple fix against existential loneliness, but showing forth sacraments as interconnected, graced practices which first and foremost acknowledge loneliness while at the same time denying it the power to be the final word.

scholarly journals Spouses' existential loneliness when caring for a frail partner late in life - a hermeneutical approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1734166
Author(s):  
Helena Larsson ◽  
Margareta Rämgård ◽  
Christine Kumlien ◽  
Kerstin Blomqvist
Keyword(s):  
Existential Loneliness

scholarly journals Overcoming existential loneliness: a cross cultural study

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Betty PM Chung ◽  
Jonas Olofsson ◽  
Frances KY Wong ◽  
Margareta Ramgard
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Care Facility ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Long Term Care Facility ◽  
Existential Loneliness ◽  
Meaningful Existence ◽  
Meaningful Experiences

Abstract Moving into a long-term care facility (LTCF) can alter the way older adults see themselves and reduce their ability to engage in meaningful experiences and roles. They experience a shrinkage in their social network when they move away from home, a reduction in the frequency of their social contacts and the number of people from whom they receive emotional support. These changes and losses can lead to feelings of loneliness. However, the loneliness these older adults experience may be more than having the difficulty with expressing the feelings of loneliness or the loss of social roles, as common examined in the loneliness literature. Rather, this loneliness stemmed from the intolerable emptiness and lack of meaningful existence attributed to all the losses they have experienced (i.e., existential loneliness (EL). The aim of this qualitative study was to describe the experience of EL in older adults from Eastern and Western cultures who were living in LTCFs and how they dealt with the experience. Methods: Open interviews were conducted with 13 Chinese and 9 Swedes living in the LTCF about the experience of EL. A qualitative study using Thorne’s (2004) interpretive description (ID) was conducted and data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: The core theme “overcoming EL’ captures the participants’ experience of EL. It describes a combined process of “feeling EL” and “self-regulating”. The study affirms that EL, was triggered as a common human condition in our study when the Chinese in Hong Kong, China and Swedes in Malmo, Sweden faced with life boundaries and crisis such as losses, frailty and mortality. Conclusions: EL is a very stress-inducing human phenomenon. Our study demonstrates that EL experience affects the fundamental structure of the ‘self’ unfolded by the experience of loss of control, isolation and meaningless in life. However, being EL allows the older adults of these two ethnics groups reaping the benefits that a ‘clearer’ sense of self provides, ranging from spirit of contentment to decreased distress. Thus, early and clear counselling support addressing the searching and meaning ascribed to EL should facilitate overcoming and better coping with the experience.

scholarly journals Exploring Existential Loneliness Among Frail Older People as a Basis for an Intervention: Protocol for the Development Phase of the LONE Study (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna-Karin Edberg ◽  
Ingrid Bolmsjö
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Complex Interventions ◽  
Significant Others ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Development Phase ◽  
Frail Older People ◽  
Existential Loneliness ◽  
Intervention Protocol

BACKGROUND International research concerning end-of-life issues emphasizes the importance of health care professionals (HCPs) being prepared to deal with existential aspects, like loneliness, in order to provide adequate care. The last phase of life is often related to losses of different kinds, which might trigger feelings of isolation in general and existential loneliness (EL) in particular. There is a large body of research concerning loneliness among older people in general, but little is known about the phenomenon and concept of EL in old age. OBJECTIVE This study aims to describe the framing, design, and first results of the exploratory phase of an intervention study focusing on EL among older people: the LONE study. This stage of the study corresponds to the development phase, according to the Medical Research Council framework for designing complex interventions. METHODS The LONE study contains both theoretical and empirical studies concerning: (1) identifying the evidence base; (2) identifying and developing theory through individual and focus group interviews with frail older people, significant others, and HCPs; and (3) modeling process and outcomes for the intervention. This project involves sensitive issues that must be carefully reviewed. The topic in itself concerns a sensitive matter and the study group is vulnerable, therefore, an ethical consciousness will be applied throughout the project. RESULTS The results so far show that EL means being disconnected from life and implies a feeling of being fundamentally separated from others and the world, whether or not one has family, friends, or other close acquaintances. Although significant others highlighted things such as lack of activities, not participating in a social environment, and giving up on life as aspects of EL, the older people themselves highlighted a sense of meaningless waiting, a longing for a deeper connectedness, and restricted freedom as their origins of EL. The views of HCPs on the origin of EL, the place of care, and their own role differed between contexts. CONCLUSIONS The studies focusing on identifying the evidence base and developing theory are published. These results will now be used to identify potential intervention components, barriers, and enablers for the implementation of an intervention aimed at supporting HCPs in encountering EL among older people. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPOR RR1-10.2196/13607

scholarly journals Existentiell ensamhet hos sköra äldre personer: äldre personers upplevelser samt dokumentation i patientjournalen

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Marina Sjöberg
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Other ◽  
Central Position ◽  
Frail Older People ◽  
Negative Experience ◽  
Life Study ◽  
Clinical Notes ◽  
Existential Loneliness ◽  
Individual Interviews

The overall aim of this thesis was to illuminate the meanings of existential loneliness(EL) and describe how it was eased, as narrated by frail older people, as well as toexamine existential aspects documented in patient records in specialised palliative care.Two of the constituent studies of this thesis were qualitative with an explorative anddescriptive design (i.e., studies I and II), and two studies were based on a retrospectivepatient record review, of which one was quantitative with an exploratory design (StudyIII) and the other was qualitative with a descriptive design (Study IV). The datacollection for studies I and II was based on individual interviews with frail older people75 or more years old. Studies III and IV were based on a randomly selected sample ofpatient records of frail older people who died in specialised palliative care during 2017.The data were collected using a pilot-tested review template to identify aspects of thedocumentation relating to the aims of the studies.The findings of Study I indicated that EL was a negative experience. Four themeswere identified related to meanings of EL: being trapped in a frail and deterioratingbody, being met with indifference, having nobody to share life with, and lacking purposeand meaning. The first theme was considered an overarching theme due to its closeinterrelatedness with the other three themes. The comprehensive understanding of ELamong frail older people was ‘being disconnected from life’, an experience of at leastmomentary abandonment, being left to one’s fate, and living a meaningless life. Study IIshowed that existential loneliness was eased when being acknowledged by others, beingthe focus of others’ concern, encountering intimacy, and having meaningful exchangesof thoughts and feelings. It was further eased when the participants could bracketnegative thoughts and feelings, that is, when they could adjust and accept the presentsituation, view life in the ‘rear-view mirror’, be in contact with spiritual dimensions, andwithdraw and distract themselves. Existential loneliness could be either in the forefront(i.e., feelings of ill-being) (Study I) or in the background (i.e., feelings of well-being)(Study II). The findings of Study III indicated that performed interventions were the14most common subject of documented clinical notes, mostly related to pharmacologicalinterventions. Pain was the most common documented problem, followed by circulatoryproblems, nutrition problems, and anxiety. Clinical notes concerning wishes and wellbeing-related details were documented, but not frequently. Overall symptom assessmenttools, especially multi-dimensional tools, were used to a small extent. More people whoreceived care in palliative in-patient wards died alone than did people who received carein their own homes. Study IV was based on notes extracted from 84 patient records.The results indicated that documented existential aspects had both negative and positiveconnotations and were related to the patients’ loss of freedom and self-determination,loneliness and community, anxiety and inner peace, and despair and hope. The notesconcerning existential aspects were, however, not recorded in a structured way and nocare plans relating to existential aspects were found.According to the studies, both ill-being and well-being were evident, and the livedbody occupied a central position in all studies. The frail body increased the patients’vulnerability and limited their living space. Meaningful activities and meaningfulcommunity and exchange with others eased the existential loneliness. Existentialloneliness remains invisible to others as long as nobody talks about it, and it remainsinvisible in the documentation as long as it is not documented in a structured way.This thesis demonstrates the importance of making existential loneliness and existentialaspects visible in encounters with frail older people and in the clinical documentation.

scholarly journals OLDER PEOPLE’S EXISTENTIAL LONELINESS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF BEING A NEXT OF KIN

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (suppl_1) ◽  
pp. 811-811
Author(s):  
H. Larsson ◽  
M. Rämgård ◽  
I. Bolmsjö
Keyword(s):  
Next Of Kin ◽  
Existential Loneliness

“Hero” or “Anti-hero”? (The Problem of the Hero in the Works of M. Gorky in the Early 1920s)

2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (5) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Natal'ya Primochkina
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Russian Civil War ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Existential Loneliness ◽  
Ethical System ◽  
The One ◽  
The Revolution

The article considers one of the key elements of Gorky’s philosophical-ethical system – the concept of a “hero”, noting a profound difference between, on the one hand, the writer’s treatment of a “Person”, capitalized (Chelovek s bol’shoi bukvy), and meaning a full-fledged, creatively gifted and spiritually rich human being, and on the one hand, a “hero”, who was forced to recourse to violence and even murder under conditions of war and revolution. The article draws on Gorky’s works, all of which appeared in the summer of 1923: the essay “Hero” and two short stories – “The Story of the Hero” and “Caramora”. There, a heroic figure, being afraid of life and of other people, due to his egoism and existential loneliness, turns into an “antihero”, a traitor and a murderer. Our analysis of the poetics of these works makes it possible to align it to the poetics of modernism and the avant-garde. The notorious Gorky humanism, writ large during the revolutionary years and immediately after, brought to life works, where the writer protested against the “heroism” of soldiers and revolutionaries ready to kill their own people like enemies. In the 1930s, supporting the class ideology of Bolshevism, Gorky tried to “streamline” his works and wrote a series of “Stories about Heroes”, in which he celebrated the heroes of the Revolution and of the (Russian) Civil War. However, the stories turned out to be uncompelling and unmemorable; the images of the characters – schematic. Despite all his efforts, Gorky has never managed to create any significant works in which the valiant heroic type would be glorified.

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