The development of a theory of life-environment disruption to account for the phenomenon of premature morbidities and mortalities associated with a radical change in a person’s living environment
Date
2018
Authors
Richards, Stephen John
Editors
Advisors
Pearson, Alan
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Theses
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Abstract
The thesis originates in an unresolved phenomenon associated with moving into a
nursing home and concerns the reports of emotional distress, depression and
increased risk of morbidity and mortality associated with the move; shedding-life is
used to capture the broad character of this phenomenon. Shedding-life has been
the subject of scientific inquiry for seventy years and yet the phenomenon is still not
understood and, possibly because of this, there appears to be no generally accepted
approaches to ameliorate this harm. This thesis inquiries into the genesis of
shedding life and presents a theory to account for it.
The failure of existing research to account for shedding-life indicated an alternative
approach was required. As shedding-life arises in the context of a significant
change in a person’s living-environment it was surmised that the phenomenon
involves the relationship between the person and the changing environment in which
they live. Based on this, the approach taken was to use the philosophical research
of Martin Heidegger concerning the structural relationship between the person and
their living environment, an approach not previously explored.
Heidegger’s research, undertaken within the empiricist tradition, identifies and
describes the structural processes by which the person is both constituted by its
formative socio-cultural environment and bound to it as the locus and source of its
ongoing existence. This means that who the individual human person becomes is
both contingent and dependent upon the living environment into which it is born and
raised, where the concept of living environment is understood in terms of
possibilities for a meaningful life. On this account if a person’s access to their living environment
is materially disrupted they are at risk of experiencing a decline in the
meaningfulness of their existence. As this is a naturalistic account, founded on the
biological processes of the body, the loss of an appropriate living environment is
reflected in psychological distress which in turn is frequently manifested in bodily
morbidities; this is the basis of shedding life, a structural rather than a psychological
phenomenon.
This contingent account of the person is in stark contrast to the materialist approach
that posits the person as essentially the biological body, independent of its
environment. The materialist view informs the design and running of nursing homes
resulting in a significant disruption to a person’s life-environment contributing to rather than ameliorating shedding-life, as such nursing homes are iatrogenic, i.e.
cause harm. Left unaddressed nursing home environments will continue to cause
harm and fail to assist older people live a meaningful life in their remaining years.
While the thesis commenced from a concern about nursing homes, the
phenomenon of shedding-life is a much broader phenomenon. The Theory of Life-
Environment Disruption, derived from the structure of being a person, provides an
account of shedding-life by identifying the essential relationship between the person
and their life-environment. The theory predicts that whenever there is a material
disruption to a person’s life-environment they are at risk of shedding life and as such
the theory has broad applicability for human affairs more generally
School/Discipline
The Joanna Briggs Institute
Dissertation Note
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, The Joanna Briggs Institute, 2018
Provenance
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