Stress and Ways of Walking Through Life: a contribution of Canguilhem to the understanding of the General Adaptation Syndrome

Abstract

With the help of Canguilhem - for whom "man and environment, considered separately, cannot be normal" - an ethnography was undertaken in a condominium located in the city of São Paulo, having as parameter the notion of normativity, according to which the organisms, in their interactions with the infidelities of the environment, develop norms for adaptation. During six months we interviewed 16 residents about their daily life activities and their ways of interpreting and facing events considered stressful. Given the close association with the living conditions of these residents, the approach proved to be adequate to capture the multiplicity of sensations mentioned by respondents. To adapt the analysis to Canguilhem's idea that "life is polarity", we translated these sensations into the categories "frustrating" - "gratifying" and considered them as manners to engender ways of walking through life. Thus, we perceived that events considered pleasurable or painful, and referred to in a diffuse and nonspecific way, may trigger adaptive disorders often interpreted as stress by those who experience them.