“Os descabeçados”: os sentidos atribuídos aos diagnósticos psiquiátricos infantis por cuidadoras de crianças em tratamento em um Hospital Pediátrico no Estado do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

This work starts from the problematization of child psychiatric diagnoses beyond the medical-scientific discourse, inserted in the debate on the differential forms of the experience of health and illness between different social actors. This is an analysis of a notion endowed with specific meanings for families who experience the phenomenon, based on unique culturally elaborated concepts of health and illness. To this end, we took as a reference the literature that points to cultural differences between those identified and in line with a world view of modernity in the middle sectors (health team, school professionals and guardianship council) and those who seek the Unified System of Health. The latter mostly belong to the popular classes, whose worldview would be more governed by hierarchical, relational representations of “person”. Qualitative research was carried out, with interviews with caregivers of children undergoing treatment in the psychiatry outpatient clinic of a Pediatric Hospital with the aim of reaching the meanings attributed by these people to these diagnoses. From the Discourse Analysis, it was possible to observe that, despite the presence of notions compatible with the language of nerves, there is no homogeneity in the presentation of psychological identity in the popular classes revealed by the caregivers of children treated at the child psychiatry outpatient clinic. We were able to perceive the diversity of these caregivers' identification support and their expectations regarding the performance and behavior of their children/grandchildren/great-grandchildren both at school and at home.