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Moving Within the Spiral

The Process of Surviving

University of New Hampshire, sharon.murphy{at}unh.edu

Mary M. Moynihan

University of New Hampshire, marym{at}cisnix.unh.edu

Victoria L. Banyard

University of New Hampshire, victoria.banyard{at}unh.edu

To uncover implicit and explicit meanings that are embedded in the experiences of adult survivors of sexual assault, the authors conducted interviews with 12 women survivors. Using Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenology, they uncovered three relational themes and one overarching pattern from the data. "Breaking down" describes the violence that survivors experience, "making meaning" expresses the ways in which survivors incorporate the assault into the narratives of their lives, and "going beyond themselves" explicates what survivors do with their story, who they tell, and what they want to happen. Moving within the spiral: the process of surviving, the constitutive pattern, contains emerging themes, lived experiences, and the practices of participants.

Key Words: process of surviving • recovery • sexual assault • spiral metaphor

This version was published on May 1, 2009

Affilia, Vol. 24, No. 2, 152-164 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0886109909331702


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