PRODUCTION OF MEANINGS ABOUT SPIRITUALITY AND FAITH IN THE ONCOLOGICAL EXPERIENCE: NARRATIVES OF EMOTIONAL SUPPORT IN PETROLINA-PE

Abstract

The relevance of spirituality in the oncological context is widely recognized; however, studies that analyze, in an articulated way, spiritual practices and faith as resources for emotional strengthening are still scarce. In this context, this article aimed to analyze how spiritual practices and faith are discursively produced as forms of emotional support in the oncological experience in Petrolina-PE, through a dialogue between Discursive Social Psychology and Existential Phenomenology. This is a qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive study conducted with cancer patients, family members, and healthcare professionals, using semi-structured interviews, analyzed through Dialogical Maps and a phenomenological-existential reading. The results showed that spiritual practices and healing rituals appear in everyday actions, such as prayers, reading sacred texts, and the search for signs of protection, functioning as symbolic and emotional support in the face of illness. Faith, in turn, emerged as an important source of strength, encouragement, and hope, helping in coping with fear and the possibility of non-recovery, although it also reveals tensions in the face of the limits of treatment. It is concluded that spirituality and faith occupy a central place in the oncological experience and point to the need for more humane, comprehensive, and sensitive care practices regarding the existential dimension of suffering.