This study aims to understand the concepts attributed by women to the disease process of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). We have interviewed nine women who were undergoing treatment at the outpatient rheumatology clinic of a university hospital in the Northeast of Brazil. The collected data was organized, based on content analysis, in five axis: disease onset; body and Lupus; the treatment; Lupus and its causes; medical discourse and Lupus disease. As for interpreting the data, psychoanalytic theory was used with that aim, especially its conceptions of body and illness. Results indicated that the Lupus disease process leads to estrangement, affecting the body and its image and causing anguish. Nevertheless, with the course of treatment, these women began to recognize themselves in a condition of chronic patient. This condition is understood by them from the symbolic references provided by medical discourse which aids in the assemblage of a new body image and provokes changes in their lifestyles.
Immunologic disorders; women; psychoanalysis