This study is intended to discover the meaning and essence of image making on experience of
unmarried daughters who lost father in adulthood. In order to understand the essential meaning
of such experience, the research method of Max van Manen has been applied in this study.
There were 5 participants who are unmarried daughters, bereaved their fathers for 2-16 years,
and their age is 20-50 early. Date were collected during the period from April to May 2013
through working with image, intense face-to-face interviews.
nine main themes and 28 sub-topics were derived through the process of phenomenological
reflection and writing. The conclusions on image makingon experience of unmarried daughters
who are bereaved their fathers in adulthood are as follows.
First, Creative workings with image help the participants express and deal with the reality of
their late fathers, and help to have a opportunity to restore relationship with their late fathers.
Second, image making helps for participants to represent unresolved feelings about father
which were not easy to express with words and also helps to explore delayed mourning
emotions specifically and deeply. This experience made participants accept their loss, forgive
and make up their late fathers. Third, while image making, participants recognize their chaotic
situations of mother support, switch roles, marriage unresolved, establish and integrate internal
order. Fourth, through image making , participants experienced to reflex their present state,
reestablish their life and have a view of independent life.