Walking with farmers and talking about suicidal feelings: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

There is a lack of information about how farmers in South West England experience suicidal feelings in relation to their farming identities. This study therefore adds to the limited knowledge base of the phenomenological experiences of farmers from the United Kingdom by exploring how individuals with a history of suicidal feelings and/or attempted suicide experience those feelings in relation to their identity and rural localities. This is an interview-based study using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Six male participants aged 21 and over were interviewed, all of whom had current or previous employment as a farmer in the South West of England. All interviews followed a walk-and-talk interview methodology and took place on participants’ farmland. Four super-ordinate themes are discussed: ‘It is not macho to talk about your feelings’, ‘Changes in farming and the loss of the craft’, ‘My suicide was rational’ and ‘Making sense of it all now’. These themes capture participants’ struggles with identity, masculinity and shame leading up to their feelings of suicide. The final theme captures participants’ personal growth since their suicide experience and their recovery. The results demonstrate a complex phenomenological picture of participants’ sense of masculinity and expectations on them as farmers, which fuelled their sense of personal failure and energised their decisions to consider suicide. Results indicate that farmers’ decisions to suicide are influenced by complex social and personal factors and point to an important aspect of failed masculinity. Clinical implications, limitations and avenues for future research are discussed