Filhos de mães encarceradas: as relações de objeto em contexto de privação

Abstract

The present work consists in a descriptive and documental research, aiming to problematize the situation of the incarcerated women in Brazil, focusing the maternity and the intersections of the maternal figure’s imprisonment on the object relations established between incarcerated women and their children, as well the possible consequences of such experience to the child deprived of care. This research used official documents and other researches on the area, which were analyzed through psychoanalytic theories about object relations, fundamentally D. W. Winnicott’s theory, and other analogue theories, like Bowlby’s Attachment Theory. The documents revealed precarious conditions of the prison units, which cannot attend the specific needs of incarcerated women and their children. The literature considersthe prison environment and the deprivation of the maternal figure risk factors for the establishment of object relations and, consequently, for the proper development of the baby. Among the appointments made by many researchers, it is noticed that the deprivation of the caring figure may bring disastrous consequences for the development of the individual, enabling the appearance of several disorders and antisocial tendencies. Due to the low amount of Brazilian researches on this field, this work points towards the necessity of more studies, expanding the visibility of the incarcerated women and their children’s situation and enabling the construction of preventive care measures that attend their specificities