SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE BODY AFTER THE ILLNESS BY PROSTATE CANCER

• Main Authors: Alberto Mesaque Martins, Adriano Roberto Afonso do Nascimento
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Estadual de Maringá 2017-09-01
• Series: Psicologia em Estudo
• Subjects: Câncer na próstata; masculinidade; representação social.
• Online Access: http://periodicos.uem.br/ojs/index.php/PsicolEstud/article/view/31728
• ISSN: 1413-7372; 1807-0329

This study aims to identify and analyze the social representations of body for men after the illness from prostate cancer. Narrative interviews were conducted with 08 men with ages ranging from 50 and 70 years, diagnosed with this disease and who had undergone oncological treatment, for at least one year. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed using the Interpretative Phenomenological Approach. The results show that before the illness, the participants represented their bodies as strong, resistant and healthy taking in the hegemonic masculinity model an important anchorage point for these representations. The absence of symptoms that cause bodily discomforts contributed to the feeling of healthy body. The search for health services only occurred after the manifestation of the first symptoms and its exacerbations, which limited their daily actions and change their daily lives. Participants mentioned the illness by prostate cancer and oncological treatment proposals, in particular the prostatectomy, as a remarkable experience that producer of great physical and psychological discomfort. After the illness, the men began to represent their bodies as fragile, sick and weak. Those interviewed point to the impact of body changes, especially those related to sexual and urological dysfunctions in ways of thinking, feeling and acting in relation to his masculinity. Accordingly, the limitations imposed by illness and oncological treatments are opposed to the hegemonic masculinity model, favoring the feeling of being less a man than before the illness.