Abstract

AMARAL, Alberto; AMARAL, Alberto  and  SOUZA, Debora. Children and Adolescents with Chronic Conditions Speak About Health. Rev. Polis Psique [online]. 2017, vol.7, n.3, pp. 116-135. ISSN 2238-152X.

This article presents the results of research carried out with children and adolescents with complex chronic conditions at one of Rio de Janeiro’s most prominent hospitals for children, adolescents and women. Using an ethnographic approach as methodology, our study aims to investigate the meaning of health according to children and adolescents during their hospitalisations. Observation and various playful approaches were used to facilitate testimonials from the children and adolescents thus ensuring their subjective presence in the research. Throughout the study, the children’s normative capacity particularly stood out, a capacity that can be referred to Georges Canguilhem’s work On the Normal and the Pathological (1978) that we find present in all circumstances of illness as ways of coping with the difficulties of suffering implicit to chronic conditions.

Keywords : Child; Adolescent; Health; Chronic Conditions; Normative Capacity.

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