Invisível e imprevisível: a fibromialgia no imaginário coletivo de um grupo de pacientes

Abstract

In psychoanalytical terms, the collective imaginary refers to the non-conscious ideoaffective complex composed by beliefs, emotions and images that influence the practices of a determined social group related to a phenomenon. The resource to such concept in new research could shed light on issues that haven’t been well explored concerning fibromyalgia, which is a predominantly female rheumatology syndrome, in which psychological and social factors might work as predisposing, precipitants and perpetuators. This study aims to explore the collective imaginary about fibromyalgia under the perspective of a group of patients. The methodological path which was adopted aligns to the specificities of the clinical-qualitative method. The participants were 10 women that have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia for at least six months. The data collection had as locus a group interview guided by the DrawingStories with Theme Procedure (PDE-T). The corpus was analyzed through psychoanalytical interpretation to build elaborations around its latent meanings. The results enabled the recognition of two fields of meaning, “invisibility” and “unpredictability”. According to the first, the participants signaled that, especially for living with a condition that cannot be proved objectively, they feel anguished and misunderstood. The second field was organized based on the belief that fibromyalgia is unpredictable as much as about its emergence as for its evolution. Thus, the present study provides elements to be considered in the clinical practice of health professionals that works with population.