The psychoanalytic loom: investigating the psychoanalysis practices of a mental health care team

Abstract

This article discusses the psychoanalysis practices employed by public mental health care teams, investigating how psychoanalysts act outside the individualized ambulatory model. An ethnographic research was carried out by monitoring the work routines of two psychoanalysts from a mental health care team. Detailed recordings of the routines in the field diary were used as material for analysis. Hence, this essay proposes the psychoanalytic loom approach to illustrate how psychoanalysis operates in dialogue with other knowledge that make up public mental health.

Keywords:
psychoanalysis; mental health; public health; psychiatric reform