Abstract
This study aimed to explore and describe wives' lived experiences of living with a husband with depression. Two wives participated in unstructured interviews; data were analyzed structurally, following Patricia Benner's phenomenological hermeneutic approach. Results indicated that the participants experienced alterations in their communication with their husbands. Participants experienced physical sensations similar to those of their husbands, who suffered from depression. We use the concept of intercorporeal communication, as proposed by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, to explain this phenomenon. Wives' intercorporeal experiences are critical to their understanding of their husbands. Participants became highly conscious of themselves due to awareness of their husbands' depressive symptoms, and awareness of the attitudes expected of them by others, including medical professionals and relatives. Participants understood their husbands intellectually and through embodied experiences, and developed the way of their being on that basis.
