Masculinidade a prova: um estudo de inspiração fenomenologico - hermeneutico sobre a infertilidade masculina

Culturally, childbearing is understood as a situation that subjects will experience at some point in their lives, especially people who are married or have a similar affectionate relationship. Thus, to realize the inability to meet such a fate seems to be a natural cultural trigger of suffering, frustration and feelings of inadequacy and helplessness. Specifically for men, infertility is closely related to loss of masculinity, virility. He fails in his role as a male. This study sought to understand the impact that infertility have on the existence of a man who receives such a diagnosis, both in self-image as in their marital, sexual and professional roles. This study sets up as a hermeneutic phenomenological research based on the ideas of the philosopher Martin Heidegger. Participants were seven heterosexual, married and infertile men. Two interviews were conducted. The analysis of the material included both the material of the narratives, as the affectation of the researcher when interacting with the participants and their narratives, through phenomenological-hermeneutic interpretation. The results corroborate the literature that states the difficulty of the men, immersed in a context that defines them as virile, powerful and invulnerable to worry about issues related to health and disease. The possibility of any condition that impairs the reproductive capacity exceeds the acceptable limits of daily life for these men, not being recognized as a model of masculinity present in the condition in which they recognize. This leads to questions about their masculinity, role in the marital relationship and their existence. Thus, to recognize themselves as infertile surpass a medical diagnosis and is associated with the construction of meaning for their existence from the approximation with the infertility condition, which helps in redirecting their choices, restoring the project to be self and allowing further recognition as men. In the marital relationship, doing what they can to ensure, theirs happiness. Through these actions, they remain playing the role of family provider, showing that they are able to protect their wives and taking in assisted reproduction or adoption of children viable alternatives to fulfill the desire to leave a legacy and give a child to their wives and to society. Another result observed, refers to the ontological condition of care that characterizes the human being. The ways in which men are treated socially demonstrates a type of care that focuses on the development of characteristics such as strength, virility and determination but does not allow them to cope with the suffering of emotionally difficult situations, such as the diagnosis of infertility. At the end, the study gives rise to reflections on the need to provide a 12 space for men and their expressions of suffering, as well as to recognize their ability to overcome the painful and difficult situations

Relação amorosa e tentativa de suicídio na adolescência : uma questão de (des)amor

Suicide rates have been rising all over the world. In Rio Grande do Norte state, a study carried out by Dutra (1999) investigated suicide rates among youngsters and found that in 1997 alone 244 cases of suicide attempt were registered. The author took an interest in studying this phenomenon among adolescents after reviewing Dutra s study and the technical literature on suicide. In addition to that, another topic caught her attention and raised new research questions: suicide attempts motivated by love, i.e., the end of a relationship, the fantasy of being abandoned by a partner. These have made the author to question how love manifested itself among adolescents and how it could become a reason for adolescents to give up their lives. Based on the data she analyzed and the research questions she developed, her research objective was to understand how adolescents who have attempted suicide because of love-related reasons have gone through this experience. The theoretical reference for the research was the Client-centered Therapy and more specifically, the construct self , according to Carl Rogers. The methodological strategy was inspired by the existential-phenomenological strategy. It used the narrative as a research instrument, inspired by the work of Walter Benjamim (1994) which was developed into a research strategy by Schmidt (1990). Four youngsters (three male and one female) have participated in this study. They have attempted suicide for love-related reasons during dolescence, when they were 12 to 18 years old. The interviews were recorded on cassette tapes, transcribed and literalized into narratives. The understanding of the narratives was based on the meanings that emerged from the youngsters speeches, as well as from the moments that touched the author. These moments highlighted the meaning of the experience of giving up life and the experience of love-based relationship as experienced by the youngsters. The study detected, among the adolescents who were interviewed, the existence of impulsiveness related to the suicide attempt. Also, the majority of the interviewees came from unstructured family backgrounds and had lost of one of their parents or had to face their parents divorce. The suicide was attempted by these youngsters through the ingestion of medicines. The research also revealed that the youngsters had regretted attempting suicide and felt guilty about it. With regards to their self-evaluation, the author observed that the youngsters had low self-esteem, negative perceptions about themselves and distorted views of themselves. These findings helped the author to reflect on the close relationship between the construct self and the suicide attempt. She also observed that a few factors, i.e., family context, education, social and cultural values, have influenced the way the youngsters perceived themselves . The results of this research confirm the idea that we have to understand the suicide attempt as a multi-determined phenomenon. This study contributed to the analysis and reflection on the factors that contribute to suicide attempts thus providing a foundation for the development of public health programs and policies to deal with this topic