MYTH AND BODY: REFLECTIONS ON BREAST CANCER

Abstract

To identify some myths related to cancer, recognizing how it occurs in the context of the female body affected by breast cancer. Methodology: Empirical search using qualitative procedures, supported methodologically by Discourse Analysis (DA), in his French side, represented in Brazil by Eni Orlandi. We used a semistructured interview, that was made with six women, participating in support groups (Present Life Project), the city of Montes Claros, Minas Gerais. The age of the women who represent the sample ranges from 44 to 66 years, all of them affected by breast cancer, in process of monitoring and that undergone surgical intervention, or mastectomy. We treated this way, for the discourse (corpus) "of women with cancer," to analyze to understand what really makes sense for them and mystification, or not, facing such a position, which is new, it is another. Analysis and Discussion: From these considerations and principles is that sought to understand the meanings made by the words. And then not only "words", but speech within a specific social context, considering the conditions under which they were produced, making them mean. The cancer is then accompanied by a new experience of living, a certain "strangeness", both by the person who finds herself affected by the disease, and those who are directly involved. The disease becomes aware of death. The look of society, the other, it is primarily by the body, that about it makes opinions, judgments, actions, thus causing reactions, attitudes first of leaving these looks away, not needing to be "seen", to be "remembered" for then, or not, seeking supports to resume their spaces. Conclusions: The cancer due to a disease still full of unknowns still is mythologized by some; and being this one of the ways to deal with issues not yet so clarified and complex, some aspects related to the myth and breast cancer were identified by the discourse of these women as the belief in the punitive nature of the disease, the result of God's will, the idea that the cancer patient is an "almost dead" or that the cancer can be contagious. The fightings under the social look influence the way of dealing with the illness, but can be a way to rectify from the knowledge, recognition, the change of attitude, demystification. But this is not an overnight process. So that a new reality is setting it is needed to echo the voice, reveal, understand the senses, and get on the path. These are the first steps, small steps, of a big question.

Key-words: myth. body. breast cancer.