The aim of this research was to understand the conditions involved in the health-disease process of the rural workers from Nova Friburgo/Rio de Janeiro, studying specifically the complaints referred to as “nervousness” by the inhabitants as well as the related explanations given by them. We applied 102 questionnaires and found 24 complaints reported as “nervousness”.In order to understand the meanings involved in this particular complaint, we only interviewed the inhabitants that had mentioned suffering from “nervousness”. When “nervousness” was interpreted as a genetic inheritance, the options for treatments were diminished as a fatalistic dimension was imbued in their explanations. In other reports we perceived that the dwellers raised relations between the present changes in the socio-cultural environment and the “nervousness” emergence. This other association enables to think of “nervousness” as a non-fatalistic condition, which facilitates the ransom of the authorship of the word, recovered as an original knowledge, therefore allowing for the establishment of a relationship between their own personal history and the acquired illness. In this perspective, we have organized a mutual help group with the local inhabitants.
Rural area; Life conditions; “Nervousness”; Health-disease process; Mutual help group