Psicologia e pobreza no Brasil: limites e perspectivas da produção de conhecimento e atuação do psicólogo

Poverty is a main theme in Brazil: according to official data, poverty reachs 70 million Brazilian people, and, between them, 20 million are unable to provide their basic needs. Psychology, as a welfare profession, and given its historical concerns with social actions, could not be away from this theme. Based on this, we ask: Which answers Psychology can provide, toward both the production of knowledge and the practice about social reality? The purpose of this paper is to investigate the psychological scientific production on poverty and the propositions, limits and impacts of psychological actions. We carried out a three stages documental based study analyzing Brazilian psychological literature: (1) online databases survey (312 papers identified); (2) 109 scientific abstracts accessed and coded; (3) selected 47 scientific papers read and analyzed. Results are presented in three sections: general description of the selected scientific production; characterization of the role of poverty in psychological literature; and themes presented at the papers. The academic production about the main theme (poverty) is dispersed, heterogeneous, and related to other fields of knowledge. Poverty is presented at these studies in many ways, such as: a criterium for sample design and the assessment of its psychological impacts; reports on professional experience with poor population; descriptions of this population group; relationship between poverty and others social themes; developmental and learning problems of poor children. In general, it appears that Psychology has improved the scientific production and experiences with poor population. However, it is necessary to build up theories and technical innovations and also to understand structural boundaries for professional practice with this population group

Os novos quixotes da psicologia e a prática social no âmbito do terceiro setor

A pesar del cuadro crítico de la pobreza y desigualdad social en que vivimos en el país, las perspectivas actuales apuntan para el fin del Estado Interventor y para la reducción del gasto público destinado a las políticas sociales. Con el enjugamiento del estado, el Tercer sector está encargado de pacificar la cuestión social, reduciéndola al ámbito del deber moral. Convocado al compromiso social, el psicólogo también empieza a trabajar en la frontera de la exclusión, sin cuestionar la finalidad y las implicaciones políticas del nuevo escenario. El objetivo de este trabajo es investigar la práctica social del psicólogo, en el ámbito del tercer sector , buscando el análisis que hace del nuevo campo de trabajo, así como las estrategias utilizadas en el enfrentamiento de la pobreza. Para la investigación, fueron realizadas 20 (veinte) encuestas semiestructuradas con psicólogos que actúan en instituciones del tercer sector . Las encuestas fueron analizadas cualitativamente, a la luz de la perspectiva gramsciana de sociedad civil y emancipación humana, bien como de los preceptos de la Psicología Comunitaria y Intervención Psicosocial. Utilizamos como base de análisis, todavía, el Método Comparativo Constante. Los resultados fueron agrupados en tres ejes: quien son los nuevos quijotes de la Psicología, las demandas del Tercer Sector y las estrategias utilizadas por el psicólogo en el Tercer Sector . La perspectiva defendida en este trabajo es la de que en el campo de las intervenciones sociales, y más acentuadamente en el Tercer Sector , los psicólogos serían nuevos quijotes , actuando con buena voluntad, con grandes sueños de transformación, pero realizando acciones que no parten de una lectura crítica y adecuada de la realidad, no percibiendo sus posibilidades reales y sus límites de actuación. Finalmente, defendemos que se debe buscar, con la inserción profesional; mejorar la calidad de vida y el bienestar, a través de una intervención proactiva, buscando el desarrollo, la organización y la emancipación de las personas, grupos y comunidades

A produção científica de psicologia e o debate sobre política social

Postgraduate studies in Psychology have passed through intense process of growth and consolidation, attested by current high levels of scientific production. It is questionable, however, the return that psychological science has given to a society that has made large investments. Considering the increasing integration of Psychology in the social welfare area, a form of possible and necessary contribution is by the expansion of social policy debate. This work aimed to discuss how Psychology postgraduate studies can contribute to understand the issue of social policy. The object were academic theses defended in the 2007/2009 triennium related to one of the five thematic criteria, which resulted in 105 theses of 824 defended in the period. The main results point to the existence of the issue in Psychology programs in a sprayed way, predominantly, albeit for a limited set of researchers and programs, "social policy" appears as a priority object of research, indicating incipient systematization of these studies. Moreover, it was found that while the majority of theses can be characterized by fragility of the theoretical frameworks in relation to the subject, with most research in a strictly technical perspective, some proportion of the studies reveals concern about putting the social policy debate into a broader social context, which represents the essential condition to construct a reasoned and robust theoretical critic. In conclusion, this thesis defends that psychological science can only contribute effectively to the society development if academic community promotes a structured articulation around the theme, deepens the theoretical debate and transforms the knowledge built into organized political practice

Concepção de ser humano subjacente à discussão sobre saúde na psicologia: uma proposta de orientação heideggeriana

A reading method (Cervo & Bervian, 1983) was applied to select psychology publications on health. The rejection of the biomedical model is a recurring theme in these publications. Its point of view is that the model is reductionistic because it emphasizes (1) the disease (2) as a body dysfunction and by consequence health is understood as the absence of disease. The implications of the biomedical model for health are biological materialism and physiological mechanicism. Psychology publications counterpoint to biomedicine is to include attention to life contexts and consider the role of individual behavior and lifestyle in the health-disease process. Those thoughts about the nature of health imply a conception of man, especially when some articles claim that Descartes’ ideas are the ground to biomedicine development. Psychology publications reviewed highlight health characteristics related to a different view of the human mode of being. The thesis presented develops an understanding that Martin Heidegger’s Dasein Analytic is a conception of human being consistent with the selected psychology works’ view of health. It means psychology’s discussion about what is health is based on an implicit approach to the human being, one that allows the rethinking of health. The heideggerian Dasein is a vision of man in tune with the comprehension of health presented in the selected publications. It is understood that the manner a human phenomenon is conceptualized is related even implicitly to a conception of man. To take into account health’s contextual aspects like society, environment, and culture call attention to the man world relationship to which Heidegger calls being in the world. To highlight the role of behavior on one’s own health makes a point of the relationship man has with her/his own being, which Heidegger calls mineness.

Serviços-escola de psicologia do Rio Grande do Norte: formação profissional e política pública de saúde em debate

The Psychology University Services is stablished normatively as an indispensable equipment to the recognition of the graduation courses of psychologists by the Brazilian Education Ministery. The Public Healthcare Policies (Universal Health System/SUS) constitutes itself as a input field of the professional category, but shows huge challenges in the formation of these professionals. The objective of this work is to analyse the functioning of the Psychology University Services (SEP) and the Superior Educational Institutions from Natal, understood as important formation devices to attend the actual demands of the psychologist's work on SUS. For this, it sought a) characterize the psychological practices developed in the SEP; b) relate the National Curricular Lines of Direction of the psychology courses to the skills and competences developed in the SEP to the performance on the public healthcare policies; c) mapping ways of including the SEP in the network designed by the healthcare policy. Interviews were performed with 13 academic supervisors, 8 field supervisors and technicians of superior level (TNC), along with 9 managers, being for of the Psychology University Services and 5 of the graduation programs. Questionnaires were also applied to 57 interns and 24 graduates. Besides that, two conversation circles were performed with the faculty and technician members from two of the Educational Institutions that were participating of the research, as well as a workshop with students and psychologists, promoted by the CRP 17. We observed that most part of the faculty members and managers know the DCN and comprehend that the formation is in process of change in what concerns to the extension of the formation to the performance of the psychologists in various contexts. However, most part of the TNC don't know about them. Moreover, the results point to the predominance of the assisting model based on the traditional clinic psychology, although the articulation with the public healthcare and social assistance networks can already be timidly visualized. Different modalities of practices in theses Psychology University Services were also detected, such as conversation groups, thematic workshops, organizational consultancies, team meetings with the interns and TNS in a daily basis, matriciament in mental health, therapeutic monitoring, among others. Yet, the SEP in Rio Grande do Norte are still isolated from the other courses that perform in the healthcare area and also from the services that compose the public healthcare and public policies.