Sergio Arouca, intérprete do Brasil: pensamento social, medicina e política (1960-1988)

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes Sérgio Arouca's education and career trajectory. Its aim is to expose what intelectual background forms the basis for his doctoral thesis, “The Preventionist Dilemma – Contribution for Comprehending and Criticizing the Preventive Medicine”, and try to understand whether his ideas influenced the creation of the Unified Health System (or SUS). The analysis uses as reference the teories from Anthony Giddens, Norbert Elias and Nísia Trindade Lima, in order to investigate if Arouca, according to Lima's work, may be considered an intelectual-physician or a Brazil's interpreter. The dissertation structure is divided into Introduction and three chapters. In the first part, I introduce the theoretical framework of the research and a panorama of published works about Arouca. In the chapter 1, I introduce the reality of Preventive Medicine in Brazil during the 1950 and 1960 decades, expose the central argument of the sanitarian's thesis and present details of his political and professional backgrounds. In the second chapter, I address Arouca's work during his time as a professor at Unicamp, the country's political situation and how developments of the latter affected the sanitarian's career. At last, in the chapter 3, I tell what happened to Arouca's professional life after he left his job as a professor and became a political articulator, fighting for changes in public health. I finish stating that the sanitarian worked according to the perspectives of the social thought. I also suggest that new efforts are necessary to think about how much his ideas were an inspiration for the ground rules that regulate SUS.