ABSTRACT
In this article, we investigate what deaf people report about the discovery of their own deafness diagnosis. Our data was collected in a focal group composed of five poor deaf adults conducted by a multidisciplinary team (educator, psychologist and sign language interpreter). All meetings were held in 2013 in Brasília, Brazil. As a result of our analysis, we identified narrative fragments which reveal two interdependent aspects of the impact of deafness diagnosis on the subjective identity: a) the iatrogenic effect; and b) the dramatic reconfiguration of parental relations after diagnosis. Our conclusion indicates that, after the discovery of their deafness, subjects become identified in the light of the unwelcome deficiency.
Keywords:
deafness diagnosis; psychology of development; Vygotsky