As vozes de quem escuta: entre o cuidado e o sofrimento de psicólogos na linha de frente da pandemia

Abstract

From the psychoanalytic concept of helplessness, the COVID pandemic can be understood as an event that updates helplessness and generates anguish, as it caused ruptures in social and work relationships, evidencing the fragility of our existence and the confrontation with death. In view of this, Psychology is summoned to listen and talk about mental health during the pandemic, being also inserted in the front line of patient care with COVID-19. In this regard, this work aims to investigate about the helplessness of psychologists who were working on the front line of the pandemic, to understand the sources of suffering and the strategies they used to cope. For that, narrative interviews were carried out with three psychologists and their contents were analysed based on Bardin’s Thematic Analysis. From the interviews, it was possible to understand that the performance during the pandemic was marked by fear, impotence, and anguish. Fear of death, changes in the work routine, the absence of references for action in this context and the conditions of the pandemic in Brazil were cited as sources of helplessness for the interviewees. In view of this, it was possible to understand the importance of Psychology in emergency and disaster situations and the need to listen to the helplessness and to the suffering of those who care for the patients.