Colice’s Story and the Effects of Generational Loss

Abstract

In 1934, Colice Sayer was forcefully removed from her home and involuntarily committed to a state mental hospital following a legal proceeding she was not allowed to attend. Colice’s husband initiated the complaint against her. Colice remained in the institution for 43 years as a ward of the state of New York. This study examined her life to gain an understanding of how the lives of successive generations were altered. The life history method was used to elicit the stories of the central character and her family. Hermeneutic phenomenology was used to gather and analyze the data. Two themes emerged from the data: learned expectations and retreating behaviors. Learned expectations were family rules taught to successive generations. Retreating behaviors were indirect actions observed or obliquely communicated. The loss of a mother by means of forced, legal separation and the subsequent disintegration of the family can pervasively affect successive generations.