This work describes an ethnographic case study with Sávio, 20-year-old, diagnosed with somatoform disorder at the Psychiatry of a public hospital in Fortaleza. During 2005, weekly visits were done in Sávio's community, aiming at the comprehension of the lived experience of stigma in his daily world, using the Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology on the reading of his lived world/lebenswelt. The content was understood under the Anthropology of Experience; Ethnography was the research method used. The results showed that the stigma is present in Sávio's community and daily relations. The auto-stigma was observed as the most relevant sign as generating of psychic suffering.
Stigma; Mental illness; Psychic suffering