RESUMO
The practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) is a social norm embedded in the patriarchal system and is resistant to change due to its roots in the tradition of the practising communities. Despite this difficulty in change, some women succeed in changing their attitudes towards the practice. In trying to understand what makes these women change their attitudes, we identified in a previous study, the critical life events at which change occurs (turning point). These turning points were described with emotions and conflicting feelings based on which we hypothesised that emotion regulation and the resolution of conflicts of loyalty might be possible mechanisms that explain the change of attitudes by the women. In this article, we sought to investigate how the mechanisms interact and how they were at play to explain the change. We, therefore, triangulated our previous data, fifteen women interviewed twice, with the published life stories and public testimonies of 10 women with FGM, and interviews of six experts chosen for their complementary fields of expertise to discuss the emerging concepts and theory, generated by our study. The data were analysed using framework analysis and an element of the grounded theory approach (constant comparison). As a result of our theorisation process, we propose a model of change in five stages (Emotion suppression, The awakening, The clash, Re-appropriation of self, and Reconciliation). This describes the process of a woman's journey from compliance with FGM and community norms to non-compliance. Our study reveals how the women whose stories were analysed, moved from being full members of their community at the cost of suppressing their emotions and denying their selves, to becoming their whole selves while symbolically remaining members of their communities through the forgiveness of their mothers.
Assuntos
Circuncisão Feminina , Regulação Emocional , Circuncisão Feminina/psicologia , Emoções , Feminino , Conhecimentos, Atitudes e Prática em Saúde , Humanos , Mães/psicologiaRESUMO
Se presentan resultados de un estudio que abordó la transmisión transgeneracional del trauma psicosocial en la tercera generación de víctimas de la dictadura militar chilena. Participaron 14 jóvenes, nietos de ex presos políticos, de 21.4 años de edad en promedio, provenientes de las regiones Metropolitana y de La Araucanía. Mediante el uso de relatos de vida, se les solicitó contar su historia como nieto de una persona víctima de prisión política. Los resultados permiten distinguir un proceso narrativo que, desde ciertas etapas, va articulando la historia de vida de los nietos, inscribiéndola en una lógica de transmisión y apropiación transgeneracional del trauma psicosocial asociada a la historia y memoria familiar respecto a la experiencia traumática, persistiendo en sus familias una dinámica de evitación y de silencio en torno a la experiencia de tortura, la que determina las particularidades de la relación de los nietos con esta experiencia traumática.
The article presents the results of a study on the transgenerational transmission of psychosocial trauma in the third generation of victims of the Chilean military dictatorship. The participants were 14 young people, grandchildren of former political prisoners, aged 21.4 on average, living in the Metropolitan and Araucanía regions. They were asked to use life stories to share their experiences as grandchildren of victims of political imprisonment. The results reveal a narrative process, which, beginning at certain stages, articulates the life stories of grandchildren framing it in a logic of transmission and transgenerational appropriation of the psychosocial trauma associated with the family's history and memory about the traumatic experience. Families remain engaged in a dynamic of avoidance and silence regarding the experience of torture, which determines the characteristics of the relationship of grandchildren with this traumatic experience.
