Abstract
Having occurred within a specific historical, political, and economic context, the introduction of Psychologists in health institutions such as hospitals and Basic Health Units (BHUs) sought to meet the demands of the current production system. With this insertion, traditional clinical practices had to be readapted and other intervention modes employed, such as brief psychotherapy sessions and psychological on-call shifts. Recent studies indicate the contributions of Sartrean Existentialism for brief psychological care offered in public health institutions, showing that Sartre’s Existential Psychoanalysis and the Progressive-Regression Method are not limited to the field and practice of traditional psychotherapy. For understanding human concreteness in all its richness, dynamicity, and historicity, these practices contribute to the performance of brief psychological care sessions in public health institutions, where they meet a great variety of demands and a wide diversity of complaints. Besides psychological care, this study also emphasizes the contributions of Sartrean existentialism to the context of public health as a whole, given that it reinforces values defended by important health policies; deconstructs mechanistic and biologizing views still rather prevalent within institutional health contexts; and helps to strengthen a broader perspective of health - important for the development of more humanized practices and for a greater accountability of the subject in developing personal and collective strategies to face difficulties related to the health/disease processes.
Keywords:
Short Care Sessions; Public Health; Existentialism; Jean-Paul Sartre