Traffic accidents: a frustration? A qualitative study in psychoanalytic vertex

• Grant number: 15/03719-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2015
• End date: August 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Cássia Regina Rodrigues
• Grantee: Camilla Victória Weigert
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Traffic accidents are one of the main causes of deaths in the world with approximately 1.2 million of fatal victims per year. In Brazil, occurred about 400 000 accidents in 2009 involving victims. Since 2007, the Brazilian Ministry of Health, in collaboration with other institutions, started to worry about post traumatic disorder events, giving recommendation to the creation of studies to understand the best way to help the victims. In these events, the psychic machinery may suffer injury, featuring a feeling of frustration due to an unachieved goal, in which the ego is unable to repair, getting stunned and helpless. There are two cases of reaction to a traumatic event: first, more adaptive, when the psychic machinery is able to transpose the traumatic situation. In this case, there is an attitude for searching solutions to the problem. Second, non-adaptive, the individual may develop avoidant behaviors to forget the problem, without a solution. This behavior may lead to mental disorders. Unfortunately, the Brazilian government has not yet proposed any national health service to mediate in these traumatic events, even though the recommendation of a front research, quoted above, was announced. This research project aims to fulfill this gap through an understanding of how to help and, promptly, give a psychological support. The methodology that will be employed consists of partially command interviews in patients hospitalized in Irmandade da Santa Casa de Misericórdia de São Carlos - SP. These interviews will be recorded in audio or video. The content of these interviews will be carefully analyzed and the goal is to perceive the feeling of frustration and characterize it in terms of form and expression. This will be done by employing the Thematic Content Analysis Technique. Furthermore, it will be used standard psychoanalytic theories as theoretical foundation. The main goal of this project is reveal and demonstrate the importance of psychological support to victims of traffic accidents as well as to supply a background for coming research projects and health services. (AU)