Appel Judith E, van Wijngaarden Els, Dezutter Jessie
Meaning Research Late Life Lab, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, University of Leuven, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Research Foundation Flanders, Brussels, Belgium.
Psychol Rep. 2024 Jul 25:332941241268815. doi: 10.1177/00332941241268815.
A phenomenon referred to as 'tiredness of life' or 'weariness of life' appears in current discussions on the legitimacy of euthanasia for relatively healthy older adults as well as in research on suicidality more broadly. However, a consensus conceptualization of the phenomenon is lacking. In the current paper, we offer such a conceptualization by reviewing and integrating knowledge from terminology, available descriptions, and first qualitative findings. Boredom with life, aversion towards life, meaninglessness, and fatigue are identified as central components of the phenomenon. Per component, we describe how the component was identified, our definition of the component and its foundation in descriptions in the literature, and empirical studies on how the component relates to euthanasia requests and suicidality. Moreover, hypotheses on the structure of the phenomenon are outlined, such as on interactions among and the importance of the different components.
一种被称为“生活倦怠”或“生命疲惫”的现象，出现在当前关于相对健康的老年人安乐死合法性的讨论中，以及更广泛的自杀倾向研究中。然而，对于这一现象缺乏一致的概念界定。在本文中，我们通过回顾和整合来自术语、现有描述以及初步定性研究结果的知识，给出了这样一种概念界定。对生活的厌倦、对生命的厌恶、无意义感和疲惫被确定为该现象的核心组成部分。对于每个组成部分，我们描述了其如何被识别、我们对该组成部分的定义及其在文献描述中的依据，以及关于该组成部分与安乐死请求和自杀倾向之间关系的实证研究。此外，还概述了关于该现象结构的假设，比如不同组成部分之间的相互作用以及重要性。
