Abstract
This study explores characteristics of the life-experiences of people with schizophrenia (2 first episode patients and 2 relapsed patients) who were given nursing counselling after they were discharged from psychiatric hospital. Their life-experiences were described from their point of view, and classified into “variable life-experiences” and “non-variable life-experiences.” It was found out that thoughts about self with an illness had changed over time among first episode patients. On the other hands, two variable life-experiences were altered among relapsed patients, which were [their unique understanding about their illness] and [considering their way to deal with problems]. The non-variable life-experiences found among first episode patients were [the uncertain self] and [the anxiety about their future]. In contrast, [a difficulty in improvement of their insights], [a wide-range of uncertainty], [stereotyped way of taking action], [obsession] and [the gap between reason and emotion] were found among relapsed patients.
The results indicate that there is a possibility of increasing the gap between reason and emotion, stereotyping the way of taking action, making patients stick to certain tasks and creating meanings in their own way for their perceived body condition in a process of relapsing. Therefore, the characteristics such as uncertainty caused by establishing their ego boundary and converting the level of social involvement and understanding about their illnesses, were considered from the aspect of a journey from self area to social area.
