Abstract
A phenomenological case study of a family in which the father committed suicide following incarceration and an adult daughter also committed suicide years later is described. This study used an embedded design to triangulate multiple sources of data (family documents and interviews with survivors) within the study of a single family. Four themes emerged to describe the relational dynamics between the father and adult daughter: (a) Mirroring, (b) Caretaking, (c) Death, and (d) Suicide. Four themes emerged from interviews with survivors about their coping process: (a) Ongoing Grief process, (b) Media Exploitation, (c) Separation and Transformation, and (d) Forgiveness. Results are discussed in terms of prevention and family processes in coping with suicide.
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Notes
Names and some other details have been changed or omitted to protect confidentiality. The construction of the case description was developed and validated through family interviews described in the method section.
Sleep-related violence during night terror episodes is rare but has been studied (Cartwright 2004).
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Acknowledgments
I want to thank all the participants in this study for their generous contributions. I am also grateful to Carla Dahl and Jim Maddock for their helpful input.
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Sandage, S.J. Intergenerational Suicide and Family Dynamics: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Case Study. Contemp Fam Ther 32, 209–227 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-009-9102-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-009-9102-x