Health education in the 70’s: a lesser-known facet of Cecília Donnangelo

Authors

  • André Mota Universidade de São Paulo; Faculdade de Medicina; Departamento de Medicina Preventiva
  • Lilia Blima Schraiber Universidade de São Paulo; Faculdade de Medicina; Departamento de Medicina Preventiva
  • José Ricardo de Carvalho Mesquita Ayres Universidade de São Paulo; Faculdade de Medicina; Departamento de Medicina Preventiva

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1590/s0104-12902017172196

Keywords:

Collective Health, History, Health Education, Medicalization

Abstract

The article is the product of historical research about the emergence and up growth of São Paulo’s Collective Health, through the analysis of an unpublished text, authored in 1976, by Cecília Donnangelo, one of the main contributors to the construction of this field in Brazil and a pioneer in social thinking in health. In the text, she examines “Health Education”, shedding light upon the historical roots of how this practice was institutionalized. The words of the author are used in the methodology as pieces related to the context that had when crafted, giving to the discourse the nature of a historical document, thus evidencing issues that are involved in past-present relationships in the interface between health and education. Through this process, the author demonstrates how, through the use of the medicalization concept that she developed in another of her works, health education becomes a public policy in the health domain that extends itself beyond the area of public health to acquire institutionalized formats in the individual medical care. It also enlarges its reach farther on its initial health realm becoming a school-related intervention. In this fashion, health education is molded as an important health policy tool, as well as a device that have direct impact on the social domain, collaborating as an additional instrument strengthening medicalization and its accompanying biopower.

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Published

2017-03-01

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Health education in the 70’s: a lesser-known facet of Cecília Donnangelo. (2017). Saúde E Sociedade, 26(1), 5-14. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0104-12902017172196