| Resumo: | A stifling smong of ignorance, fear, myth, and superstition surrounds the problem of leprosy, often diminishing the chances for early diagnosis and effective treatment. Furthermore, existing prejudices are apt to exert a strong influence on the patients own view of himself and his role in society, and to sharply reduce his chances for recovery. A leprosy patient is often unable to build up a self-identity that will reestablish his feelings of a self-respect and integrity. Leprosy institutions are full of persons of this kind. For this and other reasons, an institutionalized patients ability to regain a useful, creative role in community life and his chances for doing so tend to diminish in direct proportion to the length of time he has been away from his home and community. Even when the patient is not institutionalized and when his self-identify is not irremediably damaged, the psychological problems taht he faces are immense. In any society where leprosy has opprobrious conotations, he must still perform the following tasks 1. manage tensions in his relations with others; 2. cope with both facts and uncertainties about the disease; and 3. reconcile differences between his former and present perceptions of himself and his role in society.(AU).
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