Mental illness and life conditions of prostitutes in Rio de Janeiro / Mental illness and life conditions of prostitutes in Rio de Janeiro

RESUMO

A survey, based on interviews with prostitutes from a poor region of Rio de Janeiro - Brazil, was performed with the intention of gaining a better understanding on the perception and representation of health and mental ilness by this group. It was observed that the population under study has a clear organized system of representing mental disease being the psychopathology divided basically into great groups the one of the 'mad' and the one of the 'nervous', corresponding respectively to the medical terms 'neurosis' and 'psychosis'. From that basic division the group develops a whole spectrum of attitudes that go from how to deal with the mentally ill, up to trying to reason the causative factors leading to the existence of mental disorders. It was also noticed that, in this group, the medical or religious explanations for the psychic phenomena are not exclusive, i.e. it is not felt as a conflict that a person considered 'mad' should seek the help of a priest or a spiritual healer, as well as a psychiatrist.