The Patients Who Use Their Body to Express Their Emotion

Participant Observation in a Closed Psychiatric Ward

Abstract

This was a qualitative descriptive study based on fieldwork using participant observation. It examined why patients complain of physical symptoms and what underlies their complaints. This was done through the process of interacting with patients who continue to complain of physical symptoms that are difficult to relate to and whose causes are uncertain. The study participants were two female patients who had been in a psychiatric hospital for a long time. Fieldwork was conducted a total of 50 times over a year. The specific difficulty in relating to the patients who complained of physical symptoms could be attributed to their unstable attachment patterns. Their narratives indicated that what underlay these patterns was a sense of isolation and helplessness generated by their traumatic experiences. The implications of their physical symptoms involved “ways to draw people closer to them” and “making sense of being in the hospital.” In the course of their interactions with me, they displayed “changes in narratives” and changes in “emotional expressions” “from passive to active;” my role in these interactions was “to continue to be there for them,” “to be a witness,” and “to provide timely interventions for physical care and other needs.”