Descriptions of difference between painful loneliness and confortable aloneness

• Main Author: Lake, Tracy Melanie
• Other Authors: Ferns, Ilse, 1961-
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: Lived experiences; Painfol loneliness; Comfortable aloneness; Solitude; Constructed meanings; Qualitative research; Rich descriptions; Heuristic; Phenomenological; 158.2; Loneliness; Existential psychology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10500/17164

This study investigated the differences between descriptions of the lived experiences of painful loneliness and comfortable aloneness. Loneliness, is documented as a modern-day social problem, associated with psychic pain and suffering and myriad mental and physical health problems. Uncomplicated, comfortable or neutral aloneness, is scarce in the literature, with allusions to the possibility that people may never feel lonely. The 'essences' of the experience ofpainfol loneliness have been gathered from the literature, while the 'essences' of the experience of comfortable aloneness have been gathered interviews with five people who are comfortable or ambivalent about their aloneness. The qualitative methods of heuristic and phenomenological research have been used to interpret and make sense of the raw data generated. It was found that the subjective experiences of aloneness and loneliness are fundamentally different, and that the thoughts, meanings and realities associated with either state are similarly disparate. === Psychology === M.A. (Clinical Psychology)