Vínculos afetivos e respostas ao estresse em pacientes com câncer de mama

Abstract

Breast cancer is the second most frequent type of cancer in the world and the first most frequent type of cancer amongst women, and the researches that establish a connection between the physical and psychological aspects, i.e. the body and mind connection, have been occurring in a multidisciplinary perspective, which is what we set ourselves to investigate. The objective of this research is to study the relationship between the emotional ties developed during childhood, its repercussion in adult life and its link with the breast-cancer patients resilience in moments of stress. It s a qualitative research, designed for the study of the cases, with two patients that currently have breast cancer. A semi-directed interview was conducted as a data collection instrument and the obtained data was analysed by means of the analysis of its content, under the Attachment Theory . The participants showed the pattern of insecure / disorganised / disoriented attachment, due to frightening situations, as well as insecure ones, related to their primary attachment figures, and this internal operative pattern repeated itself in the emotional attachments in adult life. The difficulties in establishing and keeping responsive emotional attachments had been present in the stressful situations that demanded emotional support, as at the moment when the breast cancer was first diagnosed and the treatment started, making the fighting resources difficult. We are facing a research field that interlinks the premature emotional attachments and the response to stress, with its repercussion in the biological / psychological health