[Perceptions of mental patients' sexuality by nurses]

This research aimed at identifying the social representations of nursing professionals expressed in situations in which the sexuality of mentally-ill people constitutes a visible fact in psychiatric institutions. The technical and methodological resource for data collection, based on projective procedures, was denominated Investigation Technique in Daily Situations--ITDS. This instrument consisted of sixteen boards with graphic reproductions of these professionals' daily actions, from which six were selected for the analysis of the mentally-ill person's sexuality. Seventeen nurses working in psychiatric hospitals in Ribeirão Preto composed the sample. Their discoursive manifestation showed their denials of the mentally-ill person's sexuality, which restrained it as a deviation, misbehavior and disease. By doing so, they take a distant position with repressive or defensive attitudes. This position reveals the strategy adopted in relation to such knowledge and power, following the determinations of their professional code by meeting institutional and social expectations.