Revista Mal Estar e Subjetividade
Print version ISSN 1518-6148
Abstract
PASSOS, Maria Consuêlo. Family, ties and psychic suffering. Rev. Mal-Estar Subj. [online]. 2011, vol.11, n.3, pp.1013-1031. ISSN 1518-6148.
The establishment of family ties raises many questions, especially when we take into account the ramifications of that group in the current society, the characteristics of which point to the weakness, fragmentation and discontinuity of relations. In this context, parental ties, as foundations of psychic structure of the child and of its subjectivity, are, also, transformed, sometimes, generating difficulties for children's psychic constitution. These impasses are related to the precariousness of parental functions and family's symbolic references, resources indispensable for the child's growth and to the emergence of intersubjective relations in the group. These conditions produce a family dynamics in which symptoms and psychic sufferings often work as defensive mechanisms for the group and for the subjects. Such concerns permeate the reflections developed in this study, which has the aim to discuss family linkages constitution, articulating them with the emergency of contemporary modes of psychological suffering. These sufferings are shown to be, in many situations, associated with a symbolic pauperization that takes place inside the family. Issues such as: psychological structure; parenthood; linkages and psychological suffering are articulated in order to contribute, not only to the clinic, but also to the public health agents' interventions.
Keywords : Family; parents-children relationship; symbolic references; parental authority; psychic suffering.