An Interdisciplinary Analysis of the lifeworld changes experienced by people whose HIV narratives are published on the Terrence Higgins Trust website

Abstract

There is a current gap in HIV research using mixed methodologies, such as the interpretive phenomenological lifeworld qualitative approach and notions of wellbeing, within discourse analysis. This gap becomes wider in HIV research on the physical, mental, and social wellbeing of positive people who have an undetectable viral load; and research that involves people from ethnic minorities who are currently living in the UK, but have also experienced living with HIV in other countries. A big contribution of this thesis is to fill that understanding gap by bearing witness to the diverse narratives of undetectable people in the UK who were diagnosed in different phases of HIV/AIDS development: the palliative care phase, the HIV treatment trial phase, the antiretroviral rollout phase, and the phase of effective treatment leading to the undetectable status. Specifically, the thesis examines whether there is a causal link between HIV and positive people’s lifeworld experiences; and lifeworld changes in selfhood, embodiment, sociality, mood, intrasubjectivity, intersubjectivity, temporality, spatiality, and projection. To acquire fresh perspectives from undetectable people on how they attach meaning to their experiences with HIV, I carried out one-on-one qualitative conversational interviews using the Episodic Narrative Interview Method (ENIM). In doing so, I asked individuals one question that required them to narrate their experiences with HIV, with a focus on the events that they still found significant to them. The narratives indicated that people experienced personal and interpersonal outcomes across the four decades of HIV/AIDS. The personal outcomes that they experienced include positive shifts in perspective; re-discovering ‘self’, setting up boundaries, adapting to change; reframing negative experiences into something positive, finding something or someone that facilitates one’s happiness, and developing an individual sense of holistic well-being. The interpersonal outcomes include the need to find trusted others; having a sense of belonging, identity, and attachment; the need for human-to-human interaction and feeling misunderstood by others. HIV-positive people’s shifts in perspective allowed them to find a new dawn that renewed their vitality and led them to devise individual ways of experiencing joy.

Date of Award	10 Sept 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Roehampton
Sponsors	TECHNE AHRC Doctoral Training Programme
Supervisor	Mark McCormack (Director of Studies) & Annabelle Mooney (Co-Supervisor)