"Suicídio?! E eu com isso?": representações sociais de suicídio em diferentes contextos de saber.

Abstract

In Brazil, suicide rates have increased since the year 2000, with approximately 11,000 anual deaths between 2012 and 2016. Considering the magnitude of the problem, suicide is still a public health issue that has not been addressed in the country. Having the Theory of Social Representations as a theoretical and conceptual orientation, this study aimed to investigate, from the analysis of the sociogenesis of social representations, the construction of the social object suicide in different contexts of knowledge production. In order to do so, three complementary studies were carried out: a systematic review of the literature with 88 theses and dissertations of Psychology in Brazil, published between 1996 and 2017 (Study 1); a study with 2803 comments from Facebook users on suicide news published by three newspapers in the state of Espírito Santo (Study 2); and a study with 19 volunteers from the Centro de Valorização da Vida (CVV), from Vitória/ES, based on interviews based on a semi-structured script (Study 3). The data were analyzed through the Hierarchical Descending Classification, made possible by Alceste software, and Content Analysis. The main results indicated that suicide is still in the process of being consolidated as an object of study of Psychology in Brazil, besides showing gaps in relation to psychological prevention strategies outside the clinical context. The representational field of suicide, in turn, has been organized into three main social representations: suicide as a religious issue, as a phenomenon associated with the new generations and as a selfish act that directly influences the daily lives of citizens in the state of Espírito Santo (by generating supposed financial expenses and by interrupting the transit flow, for example). The anchoring of suicide in religion seems to guide two different positions: on one hand, there is condemnation of the suicidal act based on christian morality and, on the other hand, even though the idea of suicide as sin is present, there is abstaining from moral judgment. The feelings about the subject are ambivalent, especially among the CVV volunteers, being predominantly negative when referring to the act of suicide and mostly positive when related to the prevention work carried out by the institution. It is argued that suicide can be considered as an object of study, but it also constitutes a social object and object of representation. Silencing practices are obstacles that prevent the theme from becoming an outgoing social object, widely debated by the social environment. By not being a salient social object it is possible that there is no social demand for new knowledge to deal with the issue. Therefore, the possible ways to consolidate it as an object of study seem to be intrinsically linked to its salience as a social object. As it also constitutes an object of representation, the understanding about the theme must take into account the theories present and originated in the consensual universe. It is hoped that the present research contributes to the widening of the debate about suicide, considering the need to establish it as a social issue and the re-signification of practices that still refer it to the place of social taboo.