Ser jovem e ter diabetes: estudo interpretativo a luz do pensamento de Merleau-Ponty

Abstract

The diabetes mellitus insulin dependent is a chronic-degenerative disease characterized by abnormalities endocrine-metabolic and because of that it demands some changes in the way of living of its bearers. The purpose of this study was to find out the world lived by young diabetic people, trying to comprehend their existence through the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau- Ponty. As a methodological resource, a semi-structured interview was used with a guiding inquiry: How do you like being a diabetic person? Twelve young diabetic people took part in those meetings at the Integrated Center of Diabetes and Hypertension, in Fortaleza, in the State of Ceará. We have tried to learn the sense of being a young diabetic, by the speeches which were recorded and written. Through these experiments, it was revealed that the diabetics are situated in a world surrounded by medicai professionals, family members and friends who privilege the preconized aimed treatment by the Science in detriment of the existential aspects which contributes to the perception of themselves in a dichotomized body: being diabetic and having diabetes. In a temporary movement of have-been, being or come-to-be, they make an effort to constitute as a virtual body. Although their and the others’ perception influence in the young diabetics way of existing that in ambiguity of now being noticed normal and however not normal, they elaborate concepts of hamessed normality to the limitations.