GUIMARÃES, J. B.; TACHIBANA, M. Conversando e Desenhando com Mães de Crianças Autistas: Investigação Psicanalítica [Talking and Drawing with Mothers of Autistic Children: Psychoanalytic Investigation]. Revista Subjetividades, 21(2), Uberlândia (MG), 2021.
Available on: https://doi.org/10.5020/23590777.rs.v21i2.e8868
Abstract: This research aims to investigate the emotional experience of mothers of children who have been diagnosed with autism. To this end, individual interviews were conducted with seven women who had an autistic child. The interviews were mediated by The Thematic Drawing-and-Story Procedure according to the theme of a mother who has a child different from others. After each interview, the researcher who conducted it wrote a transference narrative about the respective meeting. The material was analyzed according to the psychoanalytic method, as foreseen in the Theory of the Fields. Three fields were identified, entitled “Who is to blame?”, “Who will take care of the child?” and “Who will take care of me?”, through which it was observed that the participants experienced discomfort for feeling sometimes blamed for the child’s autism, sometimes helpless by the children’s father and by the health professionals in the care of autistic children. The data point to the importance of psychological care for the group of mothers of children diagnosed with autism, as they feel that they occupy an exclusive place in “caring for the other”, without, on the other hand, having a caring attitude towards them.