Abstract:
Mental health nurses are frequently called upon to care and provide intervention for
suicidal men. While there is substantial literature on male suicide, far less is known about
the understandings men have of their suicidal experiences. This study draws upon
Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics to explore the understandings that four men
have had of their past suicidal experiences.
The interpretations developed in this study, as far as possible, make explicit use of my
own particular horizon of meaning as researcher and mental health nurse, and as such,
seeks to engage with a tradition of mental health nursing. In addition, by consciously
bringing an anti-essentialist perspective of masculinity to this process, I explore the way
in which gender impacts on men's suicidality. The primary source of information for
this study is in-depth, open-ended conversations with four men of European descent in
their middle adult years who were asked to talk about their past experiences of
suicidality.
The interpretations developed here show that for these men, the hermeneutic fusion of
history, language, and sociocultural context, provided limited possibilities with which
they were able to construe themselves as 'fitting in' with normative standards. These
constraints, that are otherwise taken-for-granted and invisible, became explicit through
their experience of ongoing victimisation. Furthermore, early understandings of these
experiences became a potent horizon of meaning from which they then came to
understand later difficult experiences. Victimisation became constitutive of an
understanding of self as fundamentally different and (hierarchically)'less-than' other
men. Ultimately, suicidality emerged out of a background of ever-present psychological
pain accompanying a construction of self as being unable to see themselves as ever
'fitting in'.
These men did not regard themselves as having recovered from suicidality, but remain in
a process of recovering. This process did not mean figuring out how to 'fit in', or
become 'normal' men, but rather, to live meaningfully as men in spite of not 'fitting
in' with the sociocultural ideal. This involved a process of repeated cycles of revisiting
and reflecting on their personal histories from vantage points permitting understandings
that opened up opportunities for personal growth and learning. Relationships were
significant for either enabling or disabling this process. Recovering was therefore a continual and idiosyncratic process, rather than an outcome of a specific technique or
knowledge.
The position taken in this study is that mental health nursing seeks to engage with
people and work with them in collaborative, respectful, human relationships. It is argued
that mental health nurses work with an individual's situated understandings rather than
delivering prescribed treatment determined by diagnosis. Hence, viewing suicidality as
socioculturally situated and historically emergent suggests mental health nurses must
closely attend to the way in which we bring ourselves into relationships with our clients
so that we are then able to create opportunities for change. The exploration of
suicidality in this study also alerts us to the possibility that through fusion with clients'
pre-understandings, mental health intervention can inadvertently further constrain
choices to survive.
