Loucas demais para serem mães: Narrativas de profissionais de saúde mental sobre maternidades interrompidas

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to investigate how psychiatric diagnoses are mobilized by mental health professionals in processes of separating mothers from their children. The research is based on the analysis of narratives from these professionals, collected through interviews conducted between September and October 2024, regarding three cases handled by the intersectoral network of services in municipalities in the countryside of Rio de Janeiro. The main objective is to understand the different ways in which mental health diagnoses and the experience of madness impact the social legitimacy and the possibility of exercising motherhood. Particular emphasis is placed on how the intersections between diagnosis, race, social class, sexual partnership, and territory contribute to the delegitimization of motherhood and the potential Termination of Parental Rights (TPR). The research findings indicate that the notion of "(dis)organization" among mental health service users operates as a central moral criterion in defining the legitimacy of motherhood, especially in contexts where psychiatric diagnoses are mobilized by professionals to justify separations between mothers and children. It is highlighted that the "organized/disorganized" pair is not limited to characterizing psychic order but encompasses broader social norms, creating and prescribing conditions for the (il)legitimacy of motherhood. The study concludes that psychiatric diagnoses shape perceptions of motherhood among mental health service users, operating as a criterion of control and surveillance in the lives of these women.