A Casa como alegoria de possibilidades de saúde: por uma ética do comum

Abstract

This research focuses on the place of the mad person and madness as a historical-political construction rather than a nosological category, seeking to expose the social exclusion of the mad as a capitalist consequence/imposition, given that these subjects, in large part, do not lend themselves to the exploitation of their labor power. It then addresses the significant transition from the industrial capitalist model to neoliberal capitalism, which produces subjects exploited by themselves and amplifies psychic suffering. The neoliberal performance-oriented subject believes they are free, while in reality they are even more voraciously imprisoned than the docile-body subject of disciplinary society. The freedom offered by neoliberal society is individual, used by capital to feed on the subject’s life, who cannot organize into a political We, capable of collective action. Finally, the study presents the idea of house-like facilities (equipamentos-casa) for the care of individuals in psychological distress, drawing on the archetypal representation of the house as a shelter. In such settings, the hierarchical positions inherited from disciplinary spaces, in which doctors and their counterparts (psychologists, psychoanalysts, nurses, social workers) exercised power over patients, give way to a more horizontal experience, where supposed diagnoses are not used to classify people, and differences are respected and lived in ways that uphold the dignity of all occupants. In the house, the roles of caregiver and cared-for can circulate more freely, which produces a particularly interesting effect in the ongoing, though still precarious, pursuit of a more ethical and humane approach to health and the care of stigmatized subjects in society.