Abstract

MOREIRA, Virginia  and  CALLOU, Virginia. Phenomenology of solitude in depression. Mental [online]. 2006, vol.4, n.7, pp. 67-83. ISSN 1679-4427.

A cross-cultural phenomenological research took place in Chile, Brazil and the United States about the lived experience of depression, in which solitude was one of the emerging themes (MOREIRA, submitted for publication). This article describes a follow up of that research, specifically studying solitude in its relation with depression. The interviews of seventy-two adults with depression (n = 30, in Fortaleza; n = 22, in Santiago; and n = 20 in Boston) were reanalyzed, focusing the emergent theme of solitude. It aimed to develop this issue, describing the relationship between solitude and depression in the lived experience, in order to understand how much solitude is the cause (etiology) or a consequence (symptom) of depression. The results show an ambiguous meaning for solitude in the lived experience of depression.

Keywords : Solitude; Isolation; Depression; Phenomenology; Cross-cultural.

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