Ways of Coping with Poverty: An Analysis Based on Studies Carried Out with People in Psychic Suffering and Prostitutes

Abstract

The aim of the authors is to analyze the ways in which people in psychic suffering and prostitutes living in poor neighborhoods of Fortaleza, Brazil, have coped with poverty in these contexts. The discussions presented are based on two qualitative researches with users with psychic suffering from the Psychosocial Care Center and with prostitutes. The access to social support networks occupies an important place in facing the difficulties of life in poverty. Religion and the belief in a Divinity emerge as possibilities of meaning and re-signification of life. In addition, an explanatory order can be established on the reality of poverty. Creative processes of resistance are identified, constituted from the subject-environment relationship. There is also a re-signification of self and reality as strategies of resistance.