This article analyzes the use of the concept of subjectivity in the public health field, associated with the historical and institutional conditions that demanded it. The main methodological strategy was a search in specific journals and reference books from the field. We identified three functions in the use of the concept of subjectivity, associating them primarily with external variables (trajectory in the health movement and institutionalization of the Unified National Health System - SUS) and secondarily with internal variables (logic of the theoretical/conceptual field). The functions discuss subjectivity as: (1) an element for conceiving the social action by political actors in the Health Reform project; (2) a strategy for problematizing health care and management as inter-subjective practices; and (3) a substrate for the production of autonomy for individuals and collectives. In their external variables, the three functions are established as processes for building micro and macro policies for the consolidation of the SUS.
Scientific Domains; Public Health; Unified Health System; Review