Mulheres reeducandas no sistema penitenciário: um estudo sobre afetividade e sentidos

Abstract

The present paper is about a field research which took place at the Prison for Women of Sant Ana, with 200 women. Its goal is both to learn about and analyze the experience of being confined in the prison system: the meaning of space and the way it affects the image one has about oneself, wishes, the ability of acting, and projects for the future. The key category of the research is affectivity according to the way it has been discussed at Research Center for the Dialectic of Inclusion/Exclusion, whose theoretical frame of reference is the work of Vygotsky and Spinoza. From this standpoint, affection does not detach itself from action and reason, and unveils the ethical quality of existence. In order to grasp the way women s affection relates to the institutional environment, the methodological tools responsible for developing the Affective Maps (Bomfim, 2010) were used, with the inclusion of questions related to the future. In Foucault and Goffman, elements to analyze and understand the institutional dynamics were looked for. As far as the instrumental reference is concerned, the Likert Scale is used to define categories, which were revisited in the light of the theoretical frame, what enabled the joining of them into two categories inspired by Spinoza: Sad Passions and Joyful Passions/Becoming. The word passion was chosen for representing the affections which keep the aforesaid womenin passivity, in servitude - a social dimension characterized by reaction and no-action and by inadequate ideas about affections. It is clear that theirsuffering results from intertwined ethical and political factors, created by social inequalities; however, women in rehabilitation are unaware of this bound. They tend to personifythe origin of their suffering by peoplewho are close to them and also by some of their own behaviors. Emotions related to the ambience as a whole are of sadness, suffering, anguish, anxiety, pain and longing. The predominant image of the place is of onethat deprives, isolates, shuts away. But there are also those that point to, although to a lesser extent, learning, a new beginning, a place of transition, passage and of provisional character. All of them show projects for the future related to looking aftertheir children, to the family, the pursuit of education and work, a fresh start away from prison