Understanding the Context and Consequences of Sequestration of Experience: A Qualitative Approach

Sequestration of experience is a continuous and invisible process that deprives human beings of some experiences and interactions on the pretext of maintaining man’s cosmological security and keeping him away from anxieties and worries. However, the said deprivation and quarantining of experiences damages a significant part of man’s existential and social dimensions and ironically increases his anxiety. The objective of this paper is to study the meanings and lived experiences of social actors of sequestered experiences as well as identification of the context of emergence and spread of sequestration of experience and understanding the consequences of it for the social actors. Qualitative research method (grounded theory method) was used which attained theoretical saturation after conduction in-depth interviews with 12 people. The samples were selected through theoretical sampling based on most diverse strategy. The contents of the interviews were analyzed after open, thematic and selective coding and the semantic units, main categories and central cores were identified. The findings of the research show that “deliberate forgetting” is the central core of the lived experiences of people of their sequestered experiences. Also “self-centeredness” is the main reason for spread of sequestration of experience and “reinforcement of self-centeredness” and “decline of emotion”, particularly “dehumanization” is the main consequence of sequestration of experience. In conclusion one may say that sequestration of experience causes loss of peace and tranquility of social actor through elimination of some interactive and emotional experiences.