Identidade e metamorfose: o budista convertido - um estudo psicossocial com convertidos ao budismo da BSGI de São Paulo

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the process of identity like metamorphosis, given the life history narratives of practitioners converted. Based on the theoretical concepts of Antonio da Costa Ciampa, we will study the identity, considering the psychosocial elements contained in the life and conversion to a new religion, in this case Buddhism. Through semi-directed interviews, we try record the living memory of individuals, to understand the metamorphosis that marked the different sectors of their lives, new meanings that have to be allocated to these facts, how they perceive themselves and what has changed in the social sphere. Also, this paper shows a brief survey about the Buddhism in Brazil and worldwide, addressing the psychosocial aspects of religion, and the analysis of identity in relation to understanding the metamorphosis in life stories. In this perspective we seek to develop grounds for the application of theoretical proposal about the issue of identity as a metamorphosis in search of emancipation