"Amar demais": um estudo qualitativo sobre gênero e medicalização do amor

Abstract

This dissertation presents a socio anthropological qualitative study about the universe of "women who love too much anonymous". Sixteen semistructured interviews were conducted with members of these mutual aid groups located in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The group interviewed is heterogeneous in terms of education and financial level, the age concentrates mainly between 40 and 50 years, and all declared themselves heterosexual. The group is guided by recurrent reading of Robin Norwood's book 'Women who love too much' and their meetings are based on the sharing of affective experiences. There is a commitment to anonymity and the search for symmetry between the components. Tensions arise around the possibility of hierarchy in the management of the group and at a convivial through "godmotherness". The discourse analysis highlights: the need to control the partner associated with low self-control (expressed by behaviors considered "compulsive"); intense dedication to the relationship ("live for the other"); the appreciation of love as the only source of happiness; and fear of loneliness. The feeling of "low self esteem" appears as explanatory mechanism of this type of bond. The marital interaction is marked by conflicts about the reciprocity of care and attention, which reveals a particular gender dynamic to emotional world. The configuration of "loving too much" as 'illness' in the founder book of "Women who love too much anonymous" is structured by the systemic analogy to the model of diagnosis and recovery from alcoholism. The narratives presented strong adhesion to psycological and medical speech. The characterization of 'pathological love' and the formulation of scales to measure it associated with the attempt to undertake it as a diagnostic category appears as important movement medicalization of "loving too much".