Abstract
The article discusses medicalization as a way of managing the suffering of mothers who have lost children, highlighting how grief is psychologized and psychiatrized in contemporary society and how "psi" knowledge is appropriated by those who suffer. The study aimed to understand how mothers who lost children dealt with this knowledge in the management of their suffering. Methodologically, interviews were conducted based on semi-structured scripts with bereaved mothers and some of their relatives and friends, always conducted from an ethnographic perspective. In all, six mothers and six family members were interviewed. It is concluded that the relationship between medicalization and grief is permeated by a constant process of negotiation, because the knowledge acquired by mothers from their experiences and the institutionalized "psi knowledge" act in a relationship of complementarity.
Keywords:
medicalization; psychologization; psychiatrization; mourning; mothers