Experiências de crise: narrativas autobiográficas de sujeitos em sofrimento psíquico

Abstract

The objective of this study was to understand the crisis experiences from subjects in psychological distress through their autobiographical narratives, concepts identification, knowledge of the explanations attributed to emergence of the crises, and analysis of the care strategies sought for these situations. Historically, crises have been considered to be mainly negative experiences that had to be eliminated from the subjects and the "concrete element" of mental illness. With contribution from Psychiatric Reform movement, and the premise of putting "mental illness in parentheses”, it has been sought to understand crisis in a contextual perspective, inserted in people’s life history. Several studies point to problems of healthcare teams in crises management in services, strengthening the need for psychiatric hospital, especially for those situations. In the literature, crisis situations are identified as moments of solitude, fear, depersonalization, misunderstanding and altered perception of time and space; on the other hand, crises can be moments of passage that lead to learning and transformation. In terms of methodology, this was a qualitative research, designed as a biographical study, linked to a narrativist perspective, focused on experience, through a socially contextualized way. We used narrative interview as tool, and for empirical material processing, the contemporary hermeneutic perspective of Hans-George Gadamer was used, in order to understand the text and the subjects involved in this act of interpretation, aimed at the understanding of our object. As for the results, we found three main dimensions of analysis: crisis conceptions; origin of the crises; and care and treatment. We realized that the crisis experiences were difficult to nominate, given their complexity; however, we were able to identify important features of depersonalization, urgency, inevitability and identity fragmentation in these situations. The subjects attribute their rise to biological conditions and experiences related to poverty and vulnerability, especially those involving violence against women. In search for help, they turn to family, religion and spirituality, medicines, and to mental health services, CAPS and psychiatric hospitals, assigning them different roles and values. We concluded, with this study, that there is need to valorize the experiences and experience knowledge of the crises by the subjects themselves, when in psychological distress, and reaffirm substitutive mental health services as strategic places of care in order to promote reframing spaces for these experiences.