ZAVAGLIA, M. M. F. A experiência vivida de mães de filhos diagnosticados como autistas e sofrimento social [The lived experience of mothers of children diagnosed as autistic and social suffering]. 106f. Master’s Dissertation – Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas, Campinas (SP), 2020.
Available on: http://tede.bibliotecadigital.puc-campinas.edu.br:8080/jspui/handle/tede/1327
The objective of this study is to psychoanalytically comprehend the lived experience of women who have children who possess special conditions, which, affecting their conquest of independence and autonomy, demand constant and lasting care that can persist throughout their whole lives. It is justified as clinically relevant study knowledge which may aid the care of mothers who deal with problematic situations in contemporary society, in which there are highly demanding collective imaginaries in terms of how motherhood is carried out. It is organized as qualitative research with the psychoanalytic method, through the use of a methodological tool which consists of taking into consideration the emblematic situation of a child having been diagnosed as autistic. The research material was produced based on four individual psychological interviews with mothers of autistic children, during which the Thematic Drawing-and-Story Procedure was used. The interviews, registered as transferential narratives, were considered, alongside the drawings and stories, in terms of the interpretative production of affective-emotional meaning fields, that is, of the intersubjective and unconscious. Through this, we arrived at the creation/meeting of the following fields of affective-emotional meaning: “It’s the mother’s fault”, “Exclusive dedication”, and “Spontaneous care”. The general framework shows us that motherhood, in the context of autism, can be experienced in two distinct manners, which might alternate throughout the maternal experience. If on the one hand the maternal experience can involve intense demands and pressures, both self-directed or external, on the other hand it can flow as a spontaneous gesture of attention towards someone who demands special care, which favors the emergence of authentic feelings of gratification and affection.