Resumo

CESARIO, Rafaella Pinheiro  e  GOULART, Daniel Magalhães. Postpartum depression beyond diagnosis: social representations and subjectivity. Rev. Subj. [online]. 2018, vol.18, n.1, pp. 79-91. ISSN 2359-0769.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5020/23590777.rs.v18i1.6068.

This article aims to present theoretical reflections about the subjective processes of a woman diagnosed with postpartum depression. It is part of a quest to break with the reductionist vision of postpartum depression, based on the biomedical model, which reduces it to its biological and symptomatological aspects, rescuing the social, historical-political and singular dimensions, often overlooked, present in its construction. For this, González Rey's theory of subjectivity was used in a historical-cultural perspective, in a dialogue with the theory of social representations and authors critical to the biomedical model, such as Foucault and Illich. The control by norms exerted in the biopolitics, as well as the control by the diagnosis resulting from the medicalization of the life, are configured as important elements to reflect about the subjective production of the postpartum depression. A case study was carried out from a qualitative perspective with constructive-interpretative basis. In the process of information construction, we argue that postpartum depression expresses the disparity between socially idealized and subjectively produced motherhood. Thus, postpartum depression is a complex subjective production that, in addition to only biological and hormonal aspects, is shaped by the individual subjectivity of the puerperal woman in question, and by the social subjectivity marked by the medical discourse and the medicalization of life, which standardize the socially acceptable experiences of maternity and pathologize the others, generating frequent frustrations and guilts. In addition, we argue that the assistance models currently provided, which depart from rigid protocols and that have the norm as a reference, do not offer a critical reflection that enables the development of subjective resources in front of this experience. Thus, we defend the need for spaces that welcome the experiences of puerperal women in a way that allows the critical reflection on the aspects involved in the singular subjective construction of postpartum depression; thus enabling the development of subjective resources.

Palavras-chave : postpartum depression; maternity; subjectivity; social representations.

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