The Disentanglement of the Body-Consciousness-World Intertwining: A Phenomenology of Severe Mental Illness.
Rui Gomes, Patrícia Silva-Pereira
Nursing inquiry July 1, 2026 DOI: 10.1111/nin.70134 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Phenomenological study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 12 |
| Population | Clinically stabilized adults with severe mental illness attending a community institution |
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Embodiment Interpersonal relations Lived experience Psychiatric nursing Severe mental illness |
| Key points | Severe mental illness is experienced as a disentanglement of body-consciousness-world, manifesting as a violent rupture of the intentional arc with withdrawal, corporeal doubt, blackout of consciousness, and fracturing of intercorporeality. |
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.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on philosophy of mind, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qualitative thematic analysis of the phenomenology of near-death experiences Cardiac arrest survivors | 2018 | Qualitative study | n = 34 |
| Phenomenology and Sequelae of 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine Use Psychiatrists who had taken MDMA | 1992 | Qualitative study | n = 20 |
| A phenomenology of meditation-induced light experiences: traditional buddhist and neurobiological perspectives American Buddhist practitioners | 2014 | Qualitative study | |
| Evoking the ineffable: The phenomenology of extreme sports. Extreme sports participants across three continents, including BASE jumping, big wave... | 2017 | Qualitative study | n = 15 |
| Phenomenology and content of the inhaled N, N-dimethyltryptamine (N, N-DMT) experience. Naturalistic inhaled N,N-DMT experiences posted to the r/DMT Reddit community | 2022 | Qualitative analysis | n = 3,778 |
Citations in the library
Cites 5
- The lived experience of psychosis: a bottom-up review co-written by experts by experience and academics. World Psychiatry June 1, 2022
- Which Kind of Body in “Mental” Pathologies? Phenomenological Insights on the Nature of the Disrupted Self The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine April 1, 2023
- Enactivism: Embodied cognition, sense-making, and nursing. Nursing inquiry October 1, 2024
- La expresión de la carne en Merleau-Ponty Daímon May 1, 2025
- Phenomenology of Practice March 31, 2014