The Disentanglement of the Body-Consciousness-World Intertwining: A Phenomenology of Severe Mental Illness.

Severe mental illness involves a radical alteration in the structure of being-in-the-world, not merely a set of symptoms. Through phenomenological interviews with 12 clinically stabilized adults, the illness emerges as a disentanglement of body, consciousness, and world. This manifests as a violent rupture of the intentional arc: the body loses its transparency, the world its familiarity, leading to withdrawal, corporeal doubt, blackouts of consciousness, and fractured intercorporeality. The findings call for a humanistic nursing that transcends symptom management, embracing an ethics of welcoming that validates lived experience and promotes new possibilities of being-in-the-world.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Severe mental illness is frequently approached through nosological criteria focused on symptom severity, neglecting the complexity of lived experience. Phenomenology understands psychopathology not as an isolated biological dysfunction, but as a radical alteration in the structure of being-in-the-world. Grounded in Merleau-Ponty's ontology and Max van Manen's phenomenology of practice, this article presents partial findings from a broader study, aiming to unveil the lived experience of the body-consciousness-world intertwining in persons with severe mental illness. To this end, phenomenological conversational interviews were conducted with 12 clinically stabilized adults attending a community institution, prioritizing the depth and phenomenological richness of the accounts. The experiential material was analyzed through epoché, eidetic reduction, and vocative writing. Findings unveil that the illness emerges as a disentanglement, materialized in the essential theme: "a disentanglement in multiple forms of body-consciousness-world metamorphosis." The experience manifests through a violent rupture of the intentional arc: the body loses its transparency and the world its familiarity, yielding lived experiences of withdrawal, corporeal doubt, blackout of consciousness, and a fracturing of intercorporeality. This highlights the urgency for a humanistic nursing that transcends symptom management and embraces the ethics of welcoming, establishing itself as an ontological mediation that validates the person's lived experience and promotes the re-intertwining of new possibilities of being-in-the-world.