forms of childhood maltreatment
Nursing Science Quarterly 2015, Vol. 28(1) 57 –63 © The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0894318414558606 nsq.sagepub.com
Article
Healing among men who have lived through various forms of childhood maltreatment (CM), referred to by the general public as child abuse, is not well understood. The phenome- non of healing represents a complex human situation central to the focus of the discipline of nursing and in need of further research and theorizing (Willis, Grace, & Roy, 2008). Although Draucker and colleagues (2011) developed a stage- based theoretical framework of healing from one form of CM, childhood sexual abuse (CSA), using data from a sam- ple of men and women, men’s exposure to CM and their healing from all forms of CM, including neglect and physi- cal, sexual, and emotional abuse, have not been adequately studied. The purpose of this paper is to propose and describe a situation-specific nursing theory of men’s healing from CM interpreted within the context of Rogers’ science of uni- tary human beings (SUHB). Given that the purpose of this paper is to introduce a new theory, we did not include an in- depth description of the entire hermeneutic phenomenologi- cal research process–including the presentation of detailed findings and participant quotes as an outcome–that served as the starting point for our theory. Findings are comprehen- sively discussed elsewhere (Willis et al., in press). The con- tribution of this paper is the description of a situation-specific theory that extends nursing theories of healing by focusing on adult men survivors’ experiences of healing from all forms of CM.
Rogers’ Science of Unitary Human Beings
The SUHB is a very abstract and general conceptual model of nursing that has been used to guide theory development (Rogers, 1992). The four postulates of the SUHB are energy field, openness, pandimensionality, and pattern. Human beings and their environments, which are regarded as coex- tensive energy fields, always are completely and continu- ously open and pandimensional, that is, without any space or time features. Energy field pattern is regarded as a non- observable wave that is empirically observable only through manifestations in the form of situations; events; reports of perceptions; various forms of expression, such as oral and written stories, dances, and works of art; reports of experi- ences; and observations of ways of living and relating.
Human and environmental energy field patterns are char- acterized by three mutually exclusive principles of homeo- dynamics (Rogers, 1992). Resonancy refers to continuous evolutionary change in human and environmental field pat- terns from lower to higher frequency waves. Helicy refers to continuous, innovative, and unpredictable changes in
558606 NSQXXX10.1177/0894318414558606Nursing Science QuarterlyWillis et al. research-article2014
1Associate Professor, Boston College 2Associate Clinical Professor, Boston College 3Professor, University of Massachusetts-Boston
Moving Beyond Dwelling in Suffering: A Situation-Specific Theory of Men’s Healing from Childhood Maltreatment
Danny G. Willis, RN; DNS,1 Susan DeSanto-Madeya, RN; PhD,2 and Jacqueline Fawcett, RN; PhD; FAAN3
Abstract The authors present an explanation of the development of a situation-specific theory of men’s healing from maltreatment during childhood. Development of the theory was guided by Rogers’ science of unitary human beings (SUHB). The four multidimensional concepts of the theory are interpreted within the context of the SUHB from themes discovered from the findings of a hermeneutic phenomenological study of men who had been exposed to childhood maltreatment, including neglect and abuse. The concepts are: moving beyond suffering, desiring release from suffering, dwelling in suffering, and experiencing wellbeing. Moving beyond suffering is the process of healing from childhood maltreatment. Desiring release from suffering is the facilitator of men’s life experiences that speeds up the rate of evolution from moving beyond suffering to experiencing healing. Dwelling in suffering is the barrier in men’s life experiences that slows down the rate of evolution from moving beyond suffering to experiencing wellbeing.
