The Family as a Place of Experiencing Critical Events – Case Study

Abstract

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The main aim is to show the narrative of a woman who experienced critical events in her personal life. THE RESEARCH PROBLEMS AND METHODS: 1. How does the narrator describe critical events based on her family experience? 2. What meaning does she ascribe to the events experienced in retrospect? The presented research is situated in the interpretative research tradition. A descriptive‑theoretical type of case study was used. Empirical data was collected using Fritz Schütze’s narrative interview technique. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The interview began by presenting the narrator’s life story from her childhood to the present day. Attention was paid to her understanding of herself and her life, her relationship with her parents, and critical events that occurred in her family. The empirical material was then interpreted based on Schütze’s process structures, which revealed her current life course, critical events in the family and landmark events in the narrator’s individual biography. RESEARCH RESULTS: The interpretation of the empirical material showed the narrator in the process of change, internal metamorphoses. It revealed poor intra‑family relations, which became the cause of illness, lack of self‑acceptance, and depressive and anxious states. The therapy that she underwent, satisfying professional work and mutual feelings of love allowed the narrator to overcome her limitations, weaknesses and take a critical look at the family relationships that were the cause of her pain and suffering. CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND APPLICABLE VALUE OF RESEARCH: The narrative presented in the paper can become a stimulus for change in people who are currently struggling with family problems, illness or suffering: all those people who experience anxiety and loneliness in the space of family life.