Espace feminin /Fragilite devoilee Femmes de milieu populaire a Sao Paulo, Bresil

This study aims to shed light on the emotional hardships experienced by lower class women living in São Paulo and, more specifically, to focus on these women's own representations of their experience.;The theoretical model, based on the notion of experience, places the subject and the context at the core of an interpretive process which integrates the culture, the subjective experience and the interrelationship between the sociocultural and phenomenological aspects in the construction and explanation of emotional problems.;In order to better grasp the social, cultural and economic conditions affecting the lives of the women of São Paulo, I reviewed the sociological and anthropological literature pertaining to women, the city of São Paulo and its fringe districts as well as migration. Individual interviews with local aids for women provided a deeper understanding of the state of precariousness under which lower class women live in São Paulo.;Work carried out in the field of cultural psychiatry as well as recent studies in, medical anthropology inspired the elaboration of a research strategy, which could integrate several aspects of the issue of mental health in women. The gender perspective has contributed to outlining the manner in which women integrate in the patriarchal Brazilian culture.;The socio-anthropological approach entails an understanding of the event, the contextual aspects as well the women's interpretation of stressful events.;The analysis revealed the dynamics between the individuals, the events, the symbolic codes and the manner by which this culture is actualized in the construction, expression and evolution of emotional problems.;For the in-depth analysis of the data, I first presented the case history of three women contacted through the CAPS (Centre for Psychosocial Assistance, Pr. Luiz Cerqueria in São Paulo) as their stories were good illustrations of the severe emotional problems experienced by women in an urban setting. The life history of three other women of AMZOL (Association of Women of the East Zone of São Paulo) allowed me to outline the psychological distress of the women living in the poor districts as expressed through the concept of nervoso.;I emphasized the distinction made by lower class women between categories of behavior according to their degree of gravity by referring to the popular categories of "madness" and of "nervoso" studied by Duarte (1986).;In the conceptual frame used, emotional difficulties (or mental health problems) are considered sociocultural and symbolic constructions. It was important to shed light on the process by which each woman builds her personal experience stemming from her sociocultural environment and on how culture is constantly being reinterpreted and reintegrated. The set of attitudes in women when acting, thinking, perceiving and feeling is a reflection of the external social structures.;I sought to demonstrate that the women's psychological suffering is perpetuated by their poverty, the urban violence they are victims of and family dynamics, which play a major role in the construction of their subjective world.