Taking care for a mental handicapped son: clearing up parent’s experiences of their being-with-the-son. / "Cuidando do filho com deficiência mental: desvelamentos de viviências de pais no seu ser-com-o-filho"

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2003

RESUMO

This work emerged from my disquiet about the meaning given by parents upon caring for a mental handicapped son. In our society, handicapped people are often labeled as inferior, abnormal and suffer several forms of prejudice, many of them based on misunderstanding reasons about their real capacities. The comprehension of the meaning attributed by parents upon caring for a mental handicapped son, as far as I am concerned, makes relevant the importance of relations established among parents and children concerned to child’s mental health as well as the development of their potentialities. In order to find out the meaning of this existential experience I used the reference of the phenomenological theory methodology, that is to return to the simple things, to take off the veil, uncover aspects that are still covered to a conscience concerned to the comprehension of a phenomenon. According to this theoretical and philosophic methodology, the phenomenon that remained obscure to me was “caring for a handicapped mental son”, and the way to reach some degrees of its comprehension was to feel back on people who live this kind of care, I mean, the parents. From these ideas, I proposed myself to know the experience of mental handicapped people’s parents, viewing to understand their real life care experience. Thus, eleven couples and two mothers that had children who presented a kind of mental handicap were interviewed, however none of their offspring were neither newborn babies nor babies, focusing parents that had already had any experience on this matter, avoiding the first moment of life with a son presenting this deficiency, what might be a great trauma to them. The interview had as guide question “ how has it been to care of your son?” The reports were analyzed according to the search on to the invariant, from the convergence descriptions from the parents’ experiences. I could understand that, with the parents interviewed, despite having lived some years of caring, the deficiency remains as something that gets out the son‘s humanity, putting them in contact with the difficulty in conceiving the possibility about being-with-deficiency. However, we have also to consider the social difficulties they face; they launch themselves to called acquired experimental knowledge through the acquaintance and recognition of their children’s potentialities to search and meet the son’s development as a complete human beings. The attachment to a handicapped son is lived as a posture changing possibility in front of one another and recognition of the humane existential diversity. Though the reports the fathers have given I could learn they have been active on their care, though with attitudes still consolidated to misconceptions in which the women assume most responsibilities concerned to the son, but revealing perceptions and meaningful experiences on being-with-the son. Based en that I gathered I would like to say I do understand that the facet found out in the work will contribute to the comprehension of the handicapped individual as a complete person, expression of one of the several humane existential possibilities. Key words: Mental handicap, parents, phenomenology. (FAPESP - 01/01698-4)

ASSUNTO(S)

parents mental deficiency pais phenomenology. fenomenologia. deficiência mental

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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