[Reflections on the psychoanalytic representations of nurses about themselves and about nursing]

This study describes some reflections on the representations of nurses about themselves and about nursing, in order to analyze them within a psychoanalytic framework of the constitution of the subject in the sphere of the desire which motivates them, at the levels of the imaginary and the symbolic. The analysis adopted was the discursive practices proposed by Spink, using association of ideas in the hermeneutical tradition. Considering the subject, eight nurses were interviewed whose interpretations were displayed on graphs and tables. From discourse analysis emerged meanings in the symbolic sphere and the production of meanings. It is possible to understand that the desire of the nurse shows itself as the desire of others' desire, an imaginary desire and therefore, it is imaginary and to be constituted. This object which appears identified with the self, may appear over-valued or commonplace, depreciated or punished. From this point of view, new horizons may open up in practice and professional training for nurses, which brings them together around a signifier which can give them a meaning, enabling them to see themselves as subjects in their professional expressiveness.