A construção do corpo a partir das práticas corporais no contexto de um Centro de Atenção Psicossocial III

Abstract

This study narrowed the relations between body development and body practices in a Center of Psychosocial Attention (CAPS) III. For this reason, understanding body development in order to also identify the relations with the subjects’ health care is the aim of this research. Furthermore, the research sought to map body practices conducted at CAPS III, identify the contributions of body practices in the body development of practicing users and discuss these contributions in relation to health care. The chosen methodology was the semi-structured interview with six practicing users following a script with ten questions regarding the body related to body practices, such as: changes, feelings, self-perception, etc. In addition, photos, videos, and a field diary were used from May through August of 2019. The six users are considered the semiintensive ones at the job, and they engage in multiple body practices under their care, in which were monitored by several professionals, such as: pedagogues, nurses, social workers, psychologists, physical educators and occupational therapists together with craftsmen. We have adopted Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception as a methodological approach. The results presented three units of meaning: (i) the construction of the medicated body, (ii) body development for pleasure/fun and (iii) construction of the participatory body. The first one consists in approaching the medicine in its participation in the construction of the subject's body, as well as its implications by use. It is interesting to notice how users see this medication, understand its importance for care and note its influences on the bodies. However, we realized there is a "body disorder" due to the medicines, which hampers the "knowing who I am" while "being in the world". The subjects highlight some implications of body practices for their care. These implications are similar to the ones implied by using the medicines, although there are considerable differences, as body practices collaborate from experience by the body movement in contact with the world. The second unit emphasized the characteristics of the playful phenomena and its importance for the environment researched, since in most of the practices observed, recreational activities are present. This causes the subjects' bodies to relax and facilitates emotional bonds between professionals and users, family members, etc (i.e., expand their communications with the world). In addition, it contributes to the interpretation of the professionals based on what the bodies of the subjects can elucidate from the movement. The third unit addressed the contributions of practices in the sense that they support the participation of users in their environment, as well as implying possibilities of participation in other places, such as the home itself. The notes suggest that CAPS and its practices seek to provide experiences to the bodies that aim to enable the subjects to recognize themselves from their ways of being in the current reality, contributing to their social reintegration. However, we warned that such practices do not contribute to the control of bodies contrary to the precepts of the Psychiatric Reform, since this would be a setback to the idealism provided by the rationality of Classical Psychiatry in former times.