[Working with life histories of relatives of psychiatric patients]

This text contains the account of a practical research experience which uses the theory and techniques of oral narratives. The authors present the theoretical and methodological framework of the technique, the choice of the topic, which focused on the psychiatric patient and his/her family relationship, the research site and the characterization of collaborators. They also present each step of this methodology, starting from the interviews and following on to the reading, transcription, text correction, floating reading, trans-creation, identification of the vital tone as well as that of analysis categories. Finally, they point out the categories that have been removed from the account by making comments on the topics referring to each one. The technique was shown to be effective for the apprehension of subjective categories and as way to understand personal and social relationships in the everyday practice of nursing in mental health.