Undergraduate psychic suffering: an anthropological analysis of psychological distress at the Faculty of Philosophy, languages and Human Sciences (FFLHC - University of São Paulo)

• Grant number: 19/27798-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2020
• End date: March 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Urban Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Heloisa Buarque de Almeida
• Grantee: Felipe Paes Piva
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project focuses on a phenomenon that has recently become visible at the university: the mental suffering of its students. With empirical research with undergraduate students of the Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Human Sciences (FFLCH), the research aims to understand to what extent there is a specific interaction between mental health and the experience of discrimination associated with social markers of difference through ethnographic approach and narratives of the students. The research intends to grasp the relational character between the sufferings in the university environment and how issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality intertwine in these narratives. The construction of support communities will be addressed, as well as the emerging attempts to make psychic sufferings more visible in university daily life and, finally, the understanding that such phenomenon is not homogeneously established among students. (AU)