A condição do policial militar em atendimento clínico: uma análise das narrativas sobre adoecimento, sofrimento e medo no contexto profissional

Abstract

This paper discusses the trajectories of Military Police officers of the Brazilian state of Ceará who are currently taking leave of absence for clinical assistance. Fieldwork research was conducted in the site where this assistance is provided, which made possible to undertake in-depth interviews during a context of interaction with professionals and military police officers inside the health facility. It aims to comprehend the modes in which experiences of fear, suffering and illness are constructed by symbolic categories shared by military police officers. Thus, police representations about work, life and family become explicit in their narratives of fear, revealing a social production of indifference in face of a game of attributes, according to which courage, bravery and the condition of “killer” impose themselves onto the social fate of this professional category – because of the fear provoked on civilians for being perceived as “authoritarian and violent”, as well as the fear originated on the risk of losing their lives in a violent manner while on duty. In short, it seeks to understand, through processes of interaction, how this sentiment pervades this social segment and the way in which its moral meaning and its symbolical expression unveil the functioning of the universe of an occupation.