Abstract

GAINO*, Bruna Sena; FLAUZINO**, Candido Jeronimo; SILVA***, Danieli Rieli Miranda da  and  TEIXEIRA****, Thais da Silva. The anticipatory grief lived by the parents of a child with a chronic disease: a phenomenological analysis of the film Go toward the light. Psicol inf. [online]. 2012, vol.16, n.16, pp. 71-101. ISSN 1415-8809.

Based on scenes from the film Go toward the light (1988), this study aimed at understanding the experience of anticipatory grief lived by the parents of a child affected by a chronic disease. With such proposal, a guiding question was made: What does anticipatory grief mean for the parents of a child with a chronic disease? With a qualitative approach and based on the existential-phenomenological method, some scenes were selected to present the parents’ feelings when dealing with their child’s chronic disease. After the scenes’ selection, three categories of analysis were raised: the child’s death - how his parents experience this fact; existence, temporality, and finitude - how people deal with time after the diagnosis of a chronic disease; finitude - the idea of death and the possible religious support to go through the experience. These categories enabled an understanding of the investigated phenomenon and through the analysis of these parents’ experiences, anticipatory grief is seen as a preparation to face the child’s death, with all the complexities involved in this experience.

Keywords : .

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