This study aimed to understand the implications and feelings associated with the experience of amputation. The literature review allowed the knowledge of this phenomenon under several perspectives, besides the appropriation of some ideas of the philosopher Merleau-Ponty about body and perception. After this initial knowledge, interviews were performed with people who underwent amputation, by living in their world and listening to their statements. By sharing these moments, it was possible to understand meanings from the perspective of those who experience it, which led to six thematic categories. In addition to understanding those who underwent amputation in their context and in their essence, some facets of this phenomenon were revealed through the phenomenological referential.
amputation; nursing; rehabilitation