OBJECTIVE: To identify the expressions used by families to describe the experience of living with mental illness. METHODS: This research analysis of the accounts of family members is conducted using the software, Analyse Lexicale par Contexte d'um Ensemble de Segments de Texte (ALCESTE), which contains methodology for analyzing qualitative data that is adapted to any area of research in which text-based material is to be reviewed. RESULTS: The analysis provided by ALCESTE formed four classes grouped two by two: Class 2 - onset of illness, and Class 4 - start of treatment, Class 1 - living, and Class 3 - everyday. CONCLUSION: The moments described by family members were identified by expressions, words and terms used in their narrations. The principle contribution of this study was to bring the language of families used to describe the moments of illness through a methodology of analysis that is more distant from the researcher.
Family; Schizophrenia; Psychiatric nursing; Interviews as topic
