期刊名称：International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being
电子版ISSN：1748-2631
出版年度：2009
卷号：4
期号：1
页码：51-61
DOI：10.3402/qhw.v4i1.5000
语种：English
出版社：Taylor & Francis
摘要：This article is based on a study of 20 adults with persistent non-malignant pain histories lasting from three to more than 30 years. A narrative approach was used to investigate how the participants experienced their daily life with persistent pain. Data were collected by in-depth interviews, transcribed verbatim and analysed using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. The study revealed disjunctions in the participants' lives between the temporal structure of pain experience, and the common, social time. The results were, first, the temporal unpredictability of the informants' pain experience, which constituted an obstacle to communicating the pain; second, the importance in health care provision of the patients' pain history. Pain invaded the participants' lives insidiously, and forced their consciousness episodically away from the common world. This temporal "confinement" caused problems of relating their pain experiences in objective time. The participants used narratives, metaphors, and emphatic expressions. When health care providers focussed on the here-and-now situation, the unpredictable though long-term character of the pain was disregarded. Several participants told of disappointing meetings with professionals, and of ineffective treatments. The importance of telling the whole pain history was emphasized. Through exploring and explicating their experiences in narratives, some participants expressed that their temporal perspective was being extending to future possibilities. The article concludes that professionals should give attention to the temporal development of pain, by listening with empathy and imagination to gain an understanding of how their patients' lives have evolved. When patients are given time to "tell the whole story", the professionals and the patients may develop and share a temporally continuous perspective that spans past, present and future. Key words: Persistent pain, temporality, narrative methods, subjective time, objective time, meetings between health care providers and pain patients
