Efeitos da fragilização dos vínculos afetivos sobre a saúde mental de mulheres encarceradas em Vitória da Conquista - BA

Abstract

Incarcerated people go through different processes of oppression, which culminate in the marginalization and invisibility of their demands, especially those related to mental health. By adding the gender marker to this discussion, a greater vulnerability is perceived among women deprived of liberty, who suffer from the weakening of their affective bonds due to imprisonment, and often have their demands unattended. Considering this scenario, the present study has the general objective of understanding the effects of the changing of affective bonds caused by incarceration on the mental health of women in situations of deprivation of liberty, having been developed in the Professional Master's Degree in Health Psychology (IMS/UFBA) , in the Clinical Practices and Mental Health line of research. These were the specific objectives: investigate how the experience of incarceration is constructed in the narratives of incarcerated women; examine what role the affective bonds built with their children and/or partners play in the subjective experience of these women; to analyze, in discursive formations, how these components are engendered in the mental health of incarcerated women. This master's conclusion work is structured in three different articles, interconnected, but maintaining argumentative autonomy. The first of them, of a theoretical nature, deals with the process of the emergence of the prison and the modification of its role in society over time, and aims to indicate the historical-political dimension of this apparatus in social organization. The second article sought to outline the historical course of prisons, their social function and the political and economic articulations of their use as a mechanism for maintaining power. Finally, the data analysis section explains the results and the methodological path of the research. Six women deprived of liberty participated in this study, whose discursive material was collected via semi-structured interviews and analyzed in the light of Pecheuxtian Discourse Analysis. The identified analysis categories allowed to get some conclusions: the weakening of affective bonds represents a source of anguish and psychic suffering; health changes were present mainly in the form of chronic symptoms and complaints; the recurrent use of medication was the most used alternative to deal with psychic suffering; the experience in prison is permeated by constant distrust and fear, which coexist with the formation of a support network among incarcerated women. Finally, seeking an intervention aimed at reducing suffering in mental health in the component spaces of the prison system, an intervention product was built, in the form of an orientation booklet for the health services participating in the penitentiary system. In it, were compiled the information brought by the women about the component aspects of living in prison, and the survival strategies developed in this context.