Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of the study was to understand and describe the experiences of young Korean women with attempted suicide.
METHODS
The data were collected by individual interviews from four women who attempted suicide during 2008-2009. A total of 25 hours interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data were analyzed using feminist phenomenology to reflect and respect the participants' view and experience as much as possible.
RESULTS
Five theme clusters and ten themes emerged from the analysis. Five theme clusters include "anger resulting from others-oriented life," "guilt resulting from selfish life," "confusion resulting from unbalanced life between self and others," "attempted suicide resulting from the chaos of life as a whole," and "peace resulting from balanced life between self and others." While these theme clusters represent the phases of life experience, ten themes indicate specific problems or strategies raised during these phases in the context of male-oriented Korean patriarchal society.
CONCLUSION
The results of the study provide insights by deeply understanding of life of young women who attempted suicide in the Korean sociocultural context with the ideology of the subjection of women.