Silence and Sounds: An Autoethnography of Searching for Spirituality during Suicide Bereavement in Life and Research
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The article is a precious piece of scholarly work that deserves all attention. The only comment I have is about the conclusions: these could be a bit more in line with the rest of the article and a bit shorter.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for your review and comments. I appreciate the feedback about my autoethnography and will respond to main points below.
Point 1: English language and style are fine/minor spell check required
Response 1: Thank you for your response about the language. I’ve proofread the text and corrected the mistakes.
Point 2: The only comment I have is about the conclusions: these could be a bit more in line with the rest of the article and a bit shorter.
Response 2: Thank you for your comment about conclusions. I shortened the section and changed the first paragraph. I made more clear what the whole article was about and now the paragraph looks this: In the current article, I analysed my search for spirituality during suicide bereavement in research and life through an autoethnographic lens. My story suggests that losing a loved one due to suicide can provoke a psychological and spiritual crisis. The silence about suicide, grief and painful experiences seems to be rooted in sociocultural religion, society, and family history. It also affects the inner experiences—the silence of suicide bereavement, brakes by some sounds. The sounds involve a personal search for spirituality in Christianity and the old Lithuanian culture, which connect me to something bigger through bodily spiritual experiences. Another way to make a sound is my work in academia, in which I am researching spirituality during suicide bereavement. Academia, although not always approving, gives tools and structure to understand the experiences of spirituality during suicide bereavement. Conducting my research also helps to understand and compare my experience of my best friend’s suicide.
I hope that now it is more connected with the rest of the article.
Reviewer 2 Report
This is an excellent autoethnography on the linkages between studying suicide and experiencing bereavement due to the suicide of the author's best friend. Rare is the review from me that is this short, but this article is outstanding. So, I have relatively few changes to recommend.
There are a few typographical changes (e.g., 8. floor should be 8th floor; section 9's subtitle could simply be "...Spiritual Intoxication..." thus dropping "the"). A careful front to back proofread is in order.
Finally, I have heard that Emile Durkheim's study of suicide was prompted, in part, by the suicide of someone close to him. If that's true, this point could be placed in connection to the current study. Durkheim becomes the standard-bearer for positivism (objectivity) and this (social) fact of Durkheim's personal bereavement is lost to history, with both this occurrence and our lack of awareness about it underscoring the need for the current autoethnography. I have heard about this from a professor in graduate school but have not investigated it myself. It might require consulting a biography of Durkheim.
Excellent work. Many autoethnographies do not warrant the title of article and are instead essays. This work is clearly an article.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for your review and comments. I appreciate the feedback about my autoethnography and will respond to main points below.
Point 1: There are a few typographical changes (e.g., 8. floor should be 8th floor; section 9's subtitle could simply be "...Spiritual Intoxication..." thus dropping "the"). A careful front to back proofread is in order.
Response 1: Thank you for your comments on the language. I’ve corrected the mistakes and proofread the text.
Point 2: I have heard that Emile Durkheim's study of suicide was prompted, in part, by the suicide of someone close to him. If that's true, this point could be placed in connection to the current study. Durkheim becomes the standard-bearer for positivism (objectivity) and this (social) fact of Durkheim's personal bereavement is lost to history, with both this occurrence and our lack of awareness about it underscoring the need for the current autoethnography. I have heard about this from a professor in graduate school but have not investigated it myself. It might require consulting a biography of Durkheim.
Response 2: Thank you for this interesting idea. I’ve tried to find more information about E. Durkheim’s biography. In his own work, surely, I didn’t find a clue about his personal experience with someone’s suicide. Because of the limited time for the minor revisions, I was not able to get the biography by Marcel Fournier, which might be the best place to look deeper into E. Durkheim’s life. I’ve read three different reviews of this book, but there was nothing about the loss due to suicide. Although there was interesting information about his religious background and personality. I hope that I will be able to read the book later and maybe use it in my further work as a fact and as an inspiration.
