Table 1 Van Manen’s [29, 30] Five Fundamental Existential of Human Experience
Existential Theme | Description |
|---|---|
Lived Relation | “Is the lived relation we maintain with others in the interpersonal space that we share with them” (Van Manen, 2007, pp. 104). How we relate to one another within an interpersonal shared space. |
Lived Body | Lived body “refers to the phenomenological fact that we are always bodily in the world’” (Van Manen, 2007, pp. 102). The experience of being a physically or bodily in the world. |
Lived Space | Van Manen (2007, pp.102) refers to lived space (spatiality) as a “felt space … “.The experience of space in which we find ourselves affects the way we feel. |
Lived Time | “Lived time refers to subjective time as opposed to clock time or objective time … and lived time is also our temporal way of being in the world” (Van Manen, 2007, pp. 104). |
Lived Things | “The things are our world in its material thing like reality” … How are “things” experienced and how do the experiences of things and world contribute to the essential meaning of the phenomenon” (Van Manen, 2014, pp. 307). |