The meanings of being a person with mental disorder: contributions of the spontaneous theater dramatization of daily life to the psychosocial rehabilitation

Author(s)

Francine Baltazar Assad

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Ribeirão Preto.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Enfermagem de Ribeirão Preto (PCARP/BC)
• Defense date: 2011-08-08

Examining board members

Luiz Jorge Pedrão; Adriana Inocenti Miasso; Sinval Avelino dos Santos

• Advisor: Luiz Jorge Pedrão

Abstract

Reflecting about the proposal of psychosocial rehabilitation, the context where the person with a mental disorder live and in some strategies and conceptions that constituted the psychiatric thought and its therapeutic practices, the spontaneous theater dramatization of daily life is presented as an occupational therapy important tool. Occupational therapy establishes the social exclusion as the starting problematic, and has the social inclusion as the final goal. By proposing the spontaneous theater dramatization of daily life as one of the possible activities in the occupational therapy clinic, it was used an important expression way, where, through the dramatic game, the subject experiences situations and roles in a not committed way. This way the study had as objectives comprehend, through the spontaneous theater dramatization of daily life, the meaning of being a person with mental disorder and offer a tool in order to regain meaning, contribution to their psycho-social rehabilitation. In order to do that, five people with mental disorders, members of a psychosocial center, participated in twelve meetings where it was used the mentioned tool. It is transversal study, of qualification character. It was used videos and interviews. To analyze the data the thematic analysis of content was chosen under the view of symbolic interactionism. Thus, from the north question \"what does it mean to you to be a person with a mental disorder?\" the following categories were highlighted. The mental disorder, its definitions and causes; the person with the mental disorder and the relation with the medication; the person with the mental disorder and the daily life losses; the relationship of the society and the mental disorder; the mental disorders as possibilities, renovations and overcoming, and the person with the mental disorder and his/her life expectations. It was verified that these meanings are related to the life track and the several relationships the subjects establish. Some of these meanings are still associated to a excluding and segregating logic in which the subject reveal his/her perceptions around social rules and the suffering from the various losses in his/her daily life. However, the subjects indicated positives ways, of possibilities, of renovations, of overcoming and expectations for the future. The study has also revealed the spontaneous theater dramatization of daily life was presented as a facilitator agent of the interaction and expression, allowing a creative construction in search of the daily life problems, constituting, thus, a valuable tool, that allows regain of meaning and contribute to the psycho-social rehabilitation of people with mental disorders. Therefore, the investigation became important in order to think of assistance strategies to the person with mental disorder that helps him/her overcome the suffering and allows a new interaction with this suffering. (AU)