Mães da Pietà: a experiência de mães que perderam filhos na perspectiva da logoterapia e análise existencial.

Abstract

A mother who loses a child can be affected by serious consequences, which can have repercussions on her social, family, marital and individual life. Mourning for a child is an intense and profound experience, capable of prolonging for a long time. The present work had as general objective to understand the experience of the loss of a child, in the perspective of Logotherapy and Existential Analysis. Specifically, it had as objectives: to understand the process of mourning, the tragic triad and the technical logo; to describe the maternal mourning, the coping strategies after the loss of a child and their relation with sense / values; and to investigate the importance of spirituality, the axes of meaning and existential values among group participants. It is a qualitative research in the perspective of Logotherapy and Existential Analysis. The instruments used in the research were the narrative interview from the perspective of Walter Benjamim and the field journal of the researcher. The research started with a triggering question: "How did you experience losing a child?" and ancillary questions. The participants are part of a group of women, in a city in the interior of Paraíba, that lost their children. This group is entitled "Mães da Pietà", inspired by the work of Maria da Pietà by the artist Michelangelo. For the study, an intentional sample of nine participants was used. The analyzes were based on Minayo’s content analysis technique and from the theoretical perspective of Viktor Frankl, data were also used referring to the researcher's field diary. The research has found that some mothers feel guilty about the loss of their child. In addition, the pain of loss has changed the way they see the world; it was also evident that the spiritual actions became more present in the daily life of these mothers. It was possible to identify that, in most cases, the families became more consolidated and the desire to help other bereaved mothers was also strengthened. Thus, it is possible to conclude that the actions developed in the Mães da Pietà group were of great value in the restructuring of mourning, since such actions helped to overcome the "pain without name".