Um diálogo auto etnográfico psicossocial sobre Escrevivências e saúde mental de mulheres negras

Abstract

This master's thesis stems from a political stance that advocates for the inclusion of racial issues and the narratives of Black women within Social Psychology as a means of knowledge production and mental health promotion. Thus, in addition to contributing to an anti-racist Psychology, the work also explores how the mental health of Black women can be strengthened through the act of writing. Motivated by the intersection between literature, Black identity, and science, the research aims to: (1) Analyze whether Escrevivência can serve as a factor in promoting mental health for Black women, and as specific objectives: (2) Discuss Black women's literature from a psychosocial perspective, (3) Contribute to new ways of thinking about knowledge production and mental health, and (4) Raise epistemological questions and contribute to the development of an anti-racist Psychology.

By exploring the multiple potentialities of Escrevivência, the study acknowledges the influence of African elements in language and life construction, through Lélia Gonzalez’s concept of Pretuguês, the Ubuntu philosophy, and Sankofa, which emphasizes the importance of collectivity in Black experience and the need to look to the past as a guide for building the future—thus highlighting the significance of quilombismo through an autoethnographic narrative.

The psychological foundation of this work lies in the researcher’s own trajectory: a Black, bisexual woman and writer, active in the Black movement, a devoted reader of Afro-Brazilian literature, and a poet. From this perspective, anchored in an intersectional approach, the study focuses on the concept of Escrevivência, coined by Conceição Evaristo, to understand the experiences of Black women in Brazil. This writing is, therefore, embodied, racialized, and political.

The research adopts a social constructionist approach within Social Psychology as its theoretical and methodological framework, as it offers a critical view of knowledge production, rejects universalism, values language as a creator of realities, and understands human and social phenomena as culturally shaped. This dissertation is also an autoethnographic account; autoethnography is a method widely used in the Human Sciences, which considers the researcher’s personal experiences as both a tool for knowledge production and a social product.