Citation

van Wijngaarden E, Leget C, Goossensen A, Pool R, The AM. Omega (Westport) 2019; 80(2): 245-265.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Sage Publications)

DOI

10.1177/0030222817732465

PMID

28933658

Abstract

The aims of this present study were to explore the use and meaning of metaphors and images about aging in older people with a death wish and to elucidate what these metaphors and images tell us about their self-understanding and imagined feared future. Twenty-five in-depth interviews with Dutch older people with a death wish (median 82 years) were analyzed by making use of a phenomenological-hermeneutical metaphor analysis approach. We found 10 central metaphorical concepts: (a) struggle, (b) victimhood, (c) void, (d) stagnation, (e) captivity, (f) breakdown, (g) redundancy, (h) subhumanization, (i) burden, and (j) childhood. It appears that the group under research does have profound negative impressions of old age and about themselves being or becoming old. The discourse used reveals a strong sense of distance, disengagement, and nonbelonging associated with their wish to die. This study empirically supports the theory of stereotype embodiment.

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; Risk Factors; Female; Male; Attitude to Death; Aged, 80 and over; Metaphor; Suicidal Ideation; Loneliness; Netherlands; Internal-External Control; wish to die; death ideation; metaphor analysis; stereotype embodiment; tiredness of life