The Collective Support Network, a Potential Space for Identity Recovery: The Nursing Mother Project

• Published in: Saúde e sociedade 2008-01, Vol.17 (1), p.117-130
• Main Authors: Guimaraes, Marco Antonio Chagas, Podkameni, Angela Baraf
• Format: Article
• Language: por ; spa
• Subjects: Black Community; Blacks; Public Health; Racism; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Support Networks
• ISSN: 0104-1290
• DOI: 10.1590/S0104-12902008000100011

The purpose of study is to contribute to the understanding from racism, racial intolerance, which exist in the Brazilian socio-culture & affect the mental health of the black population. With this objective in & based on Donald Winnicott's theoretical & clinical psychoanalytic concepts, it presents the idea the exposure of black descendants to an environment such as the one offered by our socio-culture causes an excessive effort to maintain & feed the subjective field (Podkameni & Guimaraes, 2004) that Winnicott (1975) called "potential space," which has a significant importance for mental health. The study presents & discusses the concept of traumatic conflictive situations in order to give visibility to this effort, which is not observable concretely, in view of its, psychological nature. Through the Mae-Criadeira (Nursing Mother) Project experience, developed in the communities of Vigario Geral & Parada de Lucas (Rio de Janeiro), & directed at black & nonblack pregnant women, the idea of the Collective Support Network is presented as an intervention strategy, contributing to lessen the harmful effects of racism in this women population. References. Adapted from the source document.