"A good night out" (voices of 'binge' drinkers): a phenomenological investigation of binge drinking women in Yorkshire

This research analyses a binge drinking night out of women aged 25-55. The research method is a thematically structured phenomenological analysis utilising Structured Existential Analysis (SEA) (Deurzen 2010) and Fractions of the Lifeworld (Ashworth 2003) as overlapping heuristic devices. The thematic structure allows a strong narrative flow, which ensures that the voices of co-researchers are maintained throughout. These voices are analysed with SEA, which generative process unveils a greater number of sub themes and an increased complexity that is then analysed using the Fractions of the Lifeworld heuristic. Emotional movement across the night out is tracked and many interwoven themes emerge including gender, sexuality, resistance, freedom, self worth and power. The night out is found to have a ritual structure of time that allows co-researchers a temporary transcendence of their pallid mood as a satiated tedium. The night out is in turn experienced as satiated fullness and is transcended by the release of the next day and the return to work. It is suggested that this ontological movement of the emotions is a possible key-underpinning factor in the initiation of the process of ritual, addiction and of all motivational movement.