Unidas pela dor: o imaginário coletivo de filhas sobre a mulher com fibromialgia

Abstract

The aim of this study was to understand the collective imaginary of family members about women with fibromyalgia. This is a segment of a broader research project, based on which the participation of adult daughters was prioritized. The study adopts a qualitative approach and was developed based on the psychoanalytic investigative method. The participants were 10 adult daughters of women with fibromyalgia. Data collection was carried out through individual interviews guided by the Thematic Drawing-Stories Procedure. The sample was composed using the snowball technique, and its closure was determined by the saturation criterion. The empirical material was subjected to successive non-directed readings in order to apprehend its latent meanings by capturing fields of meaning. Data analysis enabled the identification of four fields of meaning, as follows: (1) “Monitoring”; (2) “Stranger in the Nest”; (3) “Bitter Lives” and (4) “Naming.” The findings of this study indicate that daughters of women with fibromyalgia develop a sense of responsibility derived from gender issues and strive to maintain an empathetic attitude toward their mothers’ illness, even at the cost of significant psychological suffering. This is considered the most interesting point: in the context of the syndrome, mothers and daughters seem to bond around the pain that, each in their own way, they experience because of fibromyalgia. The present study, therefore, provides elements for the work of health professionals inserted in different levels of healthcare.