To publish original works which may contribute to the knowledge and development of Psychology and related fields, such as theoretical articles and essays emphasizing some classical issues such as Memory, Family, Conscience, Unconscious, and Alterity.
Universidade de São Paulo. Instituto de Psicologia
Todo o conteúdo de Psicologia USP está licenciado sob uma Licença Creative Commons BY-NC, exceto onde identificado diferentemente. A aprovação dos textos para publicação implica a cessão imediata e sem ônus dos direitos de publicação para a revista Psicologia USP, que terá a exclusividade de publicá-los primeiramente. A revista incentiva autores a divulgarem os pdfs com a versão final de seus artigos em seus sites pessoais e institucionais, desde que estes sejam sem fins lucrativos e/ou comerciais, mencionando a publicação original em Psicologia USP.
Psychobiological aspects of emotional regulation in alcohol use disorders
This theoretical essay explores the relationships between different aspects of emotional regulation and alcohol use disorder. Emotional regulation is discussed as a critical process influenced by cognitive and neurobiological responses to alcohol, in which dysregulation is a key factor in the persistence and severity of this disorder. The essay highlights the impact of emotional strategies on alcohol consumption behaviors, further linking alcohol use disorder to broader cognitive and social impairments. The main findings indicate that alcohol exerts significant neurobiological and behavioral influences on emotional regulation in various individual contexts. Literature also indicates that emotional dysregulation, potentiated by alcohol consumption, is associated with cognitive and behavioral impairments, while adaptive regulatory strategies are related to benefits in the prevention and recovery of dependence.
Copyright (c) 2026 Psicologia USP https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Healthy aging: impact of health promotion group on social representation of older adults
This study investigated the impact of multidisciplinary interventions of a health promotion and health aging group of the Geriatrics Service of a tertiary hospital in São Paulo in 2018, through psychoeducational conversation circles. The sample consisted of 25 older adults – average age 72.08 years (SD=5.34); female (72%); single (40%); higher education (44%). The social representations of “older adults” were surveyed using the Thematic Story-Drawing Technique. Results showed a realistic perception regarding aging, with greater awareness of physical limitation and the potential of investment in appearance; greater expression of emotional sphere and improvement of the social aspect through the formation of new bonds.
The Psychoanalysis of the Institutional Analysis of Discourse
Institutional analysis of discourse is a thought strategy for professional practice and research in psychology that has been developed and carried out by M. Guirado, professor and researcher at IPUSP. This method constitutes a particular conceptual field that is produced in interfaces with four areas of knowledge: Guilhon Albuquerque’s sociology, Foucault’s ideas, Dominique Maingueneau’s pragmatic linguistics, and Freud’s psychoanalysis. This study addresses the conceptual scope of this thought strategy produced in interlocutions and frontiers with Freudian thought. Supported by academic research results, we aim to discuss the conditions of possibility of working with a specific perspective on psychoanalysis that, via confrontations and tensions, enables us to think with some of Freud’s conceptual productions in a twisted way outside the strict field of psychoanalysis and inside this method.
Speaking Place: collaborations for a feminist, anti-racist and decolonial Science
Science has long supported discourses that promote advances and setbacks in the construction of citizenship. However, Psychology, anchored in ethical principles, is called upon to commit to orienting its knowledge towards the promotion of justice. This work aims to: (1) procure arguments that highlight the relevance of the work Where we Stand, by Djamila Ribeiro, for reflecting on Science; (2) understand how coloniality, epistemicide and whiteness guide the perception of knowledge and science in Western culture; and (3) recognize the relevance of Psychology as a powerful scientific field for social transformation. We discuss here the idea of Science from the perspective presented in the book Where we Stand. Theoretical research denounces that white logic erases the knowledge produced by non-white people, losing its collaborative potential for social equity.
Total pain in oncology palliative care: an exploratory study with patients and healthcare providers
This study aimed to understand total pain (physical, psychological, spiritual, and social) and compare the discourses of healthcare providers and cancer patients in palliative care. A qualitative study was conducted, interviewing 13 professionals and five patients and evaluating data by using IRaMuTeQ and content analysis. Results were organized into five classes: (1) “In a mix of pain: definition of total pain,” approaching its multidimensionality; (2) “Pain and the multiprofessional team: the need for care,” emphasizing an integral look at the subject; (3) “Evaluation of total pain,” indicating different techniques; (4) “Each day I live is a miracle: pain and the relationship with spirituality,” as a coping strategy; and (5) Family: bonds that console and suffer with cancer, reinforcing their social support. We found a need to invest in the evaluation and treatment of cancer pain as its unique attention can collaborate to face the disease with greater dignity.
Copyright (c) 2024 Psicologia USP https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Attentive listening and Pluriversal reading of a public school in São Paulo: a case study of the school institution
Faced with the violence that hit the school community in Brazil in 2023, this article proposes reflections on the genesis of this violence and ways of coping with it. Its initial question was whether this ‘language in act’ can become a racist ‘passage to the act’ — as Sodré points out regarding the ambiguity of the founding violence of Brazilian society — considering Bateson’s formulations on the double bind. African philosophies can offer a fertile field for re-establishing the broken bonds in the school community and converting this tendency toward indiscriminate violence into a transformative insurgency that can confront the ambiguity in the face of racism the Brazilian society insists on denying. Finally, psychoanalytical reflections on institutions were essential for understanding the investigated defensive dynamics of the school community.
the school institution and its vicissitudes
“The woman does not exist”. And what about the man?
Based on the Lacanian aphorism “The Woman does not exist,” this study aims to question if The Man exists. To this end, a review of Lacan’s construction on the nonexistence of The Woman was conducted via his sexuation formulas, followed by an exploration, grounded in Lacan’s own teachings, of considerations that support the nonexistence of The Man. This foundation is supplemented by a discussion on how masculinity has been shaped by discourses on the virile ideal that seek to give it some consistency, which, in contemporary times, fail to define what it means to be a man due to disruptions in the patriarchal order. This study concludes that masculinity is plural and that the idea of a closed set in which all are alike merely reflects a monotony sustained by the phallic reference.
Psychonalytic Formation and the Epistemic Turn: The Colonial Rift in Freudian Malaise
This study briefly overviews the shaping of modern rationality and its civilizational paradigm in light of a Fanonian sociogenesis. It first sets the stage for a historical-critical reflection on Civilization and Its Discontents. This elaboration, which includes other texts by Freud, seeks to question the extent of the racial dimension in the author’s formulations and its implications for a clinical practice in Brazil. A certain disalienating ethic inherent to psychoanalysis highlights the limitations of the field in naming racism within contemporary suffering, avoiding the risk of considering it as Freudian “malaise” and, thus, as a certain condition of social life within a reified capitalist system. The argumentative path in this study proposes the construction of a pluri-epistemic paradigm in the training of psychoanalysts that favors the opening of a sociopolitical listening to suffering in Brazilian soil.
Perception of climate change: methodological strategies for overcoming social and psychological barriers
We describe methodological strategies used in our studies on the perception of climate change to contribute to research and intervention related to individual and collective engagement in mitigation actions. Climate change is a very complex phenomenon fraught with uncertainty. As it involves planetary dimensions, its “legibility” is of the order of social communication and not of direct experience, being influenced by the terminology used for naming it. We present four topics that we have dedicated ourselves to, always using a multi-methodological perspective: perception and appropriation; spatial scale; temporal scale; and communication for engagement. We report studies conducted with children, adolescents and adults, using combinations of techniques like questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and focus groups/conversation circles, from whose analysis and interpretation we extracted very clear overviews of results, which considered cultural characteristics of the groups investigated and included several of the concepts present in the international literature in the area.
Copyright (c) 2025 Psicologia USP https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Psicologia e mudança climática: diálogos para um tempo em transição
O texto introduz o dossiê Psicologia e Mudança Climática, publicado pela Psicologia USP, situando-o no contexto da emergência climática global e da proximidade da COP30, a ser realizada em Belém do Pará. Organizado por psicólogos ambientais, o dossiê reúne contribuições que exploram dimensões afetivas, cognitivas, culturais e comunitárias das relações entre pessoas e ambiente. Os trabalhos, embora diversos em abordagem teórica e metodológica, convergem na defesa de uma Psicologia comprometida com a transformação social e ambiental, capaz de articular subjetividade e coletividade, ciência e política. Inspirado por uma perspectiva latino-americana e descolonial, o conjunto de textos afirma o papel da Psicologia na construção de respostas éticas e emancipatórias à crise climática, convocando à práxis e à imaginação de outros futuros possíveis.
Dialogues of knowledge in the Pantanal: contributions of traditional communities to climate change adaptation
This study investigates how the traditional knowledge of Pantanal communities is being reconfigured given the impacts of climate change on flood dynamics. Through a qualitative and participatory approach, the research shows that despite the challenges posed, these communities have mobilized their knowledge to develop adaptive strategies such as productive diversification, the revival of ancient techniques, the strengthening of solidarity networks, and openness to collaborations. The results reinforce the importance of local knowledge for building paths to sustainability and point to the importance of dialogue between different forms of knowledge. The study brings theoretical, methodological, and applied contributions, as well as reflections on pathways for future research and actions aimed at adaptation in the Pantanal. The experiences of the communities offer valuable lessons for rethinking relationships with nature and between knowledge systems in face of the climate crisis.
Ways of life laboratories: a look at ecovillages in the face of climate change
This study aims to highlight links between sustainable ways of life and climate issues. It offers findings of an investigation in two Brazilian rural ecovillages. This exploratory and qualitative study is theoretically and methodologically aligned with the intersection between environmental psychology and architecture. This empirical research was inspired by ethnography, adopting field visits, semi-structured interviews, and participant observation. The results showed that the ‘social’ and ‘cultural/worldview’ dimensions of sustainability underpin the consolidation of sustainable ways of life in ecovillages, showing attributes that can reduce the socio-environmental and economic impacts inherent to contemporary urban life. In general terms, this study highlights the importance of paying attention to people-environment relationship to address climate change and that, in the context of the global crisis, ecovillages have great potential to help communities adapt to changes in environmental conditions, constituting laboratories for life in an uncertain future.
Otherness and affinity towards diversity in the making of sustainable ways of life
Based on reflections grounded in theoretical-empirical experiences stemming from our research and extension trajectory at the interface between environmental psychology and anthropology, we address aspects that impact collective action and the adoption of sustainable behaviours. Based on a qualitative-interpretative analysis of life stories from 10 people working in the environmental field, we discuss modes of action guided and motivated by experiences of alterity—reflections and reorientations of conduct, practices, perspectives, and moralities engendered in encounters, especially with non-hegemonic social ways of life and organization, such as the historical experiences of traditional peoples and communities. Finally, we discuss the emergence of future images that serve as pathways to promote ecologically correct practices to disseminate a culture of sustainability.
Eco-anxiety and Liberating Praxis: critical perspectives on political-environmental education
The phenomenon of “eco-anxiety,” a psychosocial issue influenced by climate change, was discussed in this theoretical essay that bridges Psychology, Biology, and Philosophy. Educational principles for scientific communication and insights for transformative praxis were highlighted. Drawing on non-hegemonic authors, the concepts of “Latin American Fatalism” by Ignacio Martín-Baró, the heuristic correlate of “Capitalist Realism” by Mark Fisher, and “Necropolitics” by Achille Mbembe were explored. The analysis also considered ideas from Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of Liberation” and lectures by Ailton Krenak, an indigenous environmentalist and philosopher. The conclusion is that social transformation requires a connection between critical awareness of reality and concrete action, driven by hope. The future is not predetermined, as, despite scientific projections, history is dynamic and can be redirected, especially through class struggle. Understanding and combating necropolitics are essential in this process.
Connection to nature and pro-environmental behavior among children in Jakarta: the role of experiences of nature
This study aims to examine whether connection to nature mediates the relationship between children’s experiences of nature and their pro-environmental behavior in Jakarta. Participants were elementary school students aged 9–10 years (n=291), recruited using convenience sampling. Findings indicate that connection to nature does not mediate the effect of either direct and vicarious experiences of nature on pro-environmental behavior. The results can inform government agencies, educators, and communities in developing strategies to promote pro-environmental behavior via both direct and vicarious experiences of nature.
direct and vicarious experiences of nature
Extreme weather events: a discussion based on environmental racism and gender issues
This academic article explores the relationship between extreme weather events and social inequalities, focusing on environmental racism and gender issues. The study highlights how climate change disproportionately affects vulnerable groups, especially women and Black and Brown populations. The research argues that psychology can play a crucial role in mitigating these impacts by promoting integrated actions and inclusive public policies. It emphasizes the importance of considering gender and race in responses to climate change, recognizing the central role of women in environmental protection. The article also examines how environmental psychology can contribute to psycho-environmental awareness and education strategies aimed at reducing human impact on the environment. Finally, the work highlights the need for collective action and public policies that promote climate justice and combat environmental racism.
Brazilian psychologists and the provision of services mediated by Digital Information and Communication Technologies: regulations, and challenges
The use of digital information and communication technologies (DICT) to provide healthcare services has grown with the diffusion of the internet, constituting a field of psychology since the 1990s that significantly grown in the COVID-19 pandemic. This theoretical essay aimed to discuss the scenario of DICT use by psychologists in Brazil based on a historical perspective, finding trends and gaps in professional regulation. Its discussions followed a survey of data and regulations on the transparency portal of the Brazilian Federal Council of Psychology. The regulation and expansion of DICT use by psychologists in Brazil occurred later than in other countries due to social and market demands. Current demands include expanding research and updating education.
Being a mother with another mother: potentialities of the role of psychology in the context of non-heteronormative families
Reaffirming the ethical-political commitment of psychology to diversity and democratic society requires understanding non-heteronormative family configurations, embracing the potential of multiple possibilities of being a family. This theoretical-reflexive study aims to understand the contemporary construction of dual motherhood and reflect on the potentialities of psychologists’ actions in the face of maternal experiences within affective-sexual diversity. We argue that the gendered construction of hegemonic knowledge, which associates motherhood with the hetero-patriarchal-normative family, contributes to the historical erasure of dissenting configurations. Such silencing impacts knowledge production and affects professional training in psychology, crystallizing barriers to access for families composed of two mothers and their children to psychological care sensitive to their unique demands. This signals the urgency of promoting the appropriation of knowledge and practices against the invisibilization at the intersection of motherhood and sexual diversity.
The effect of questions on writing summaries of narrative and expository texts by students
This study investigated three aspects of summary writing: the effect of the conditions that produced the summaries; the effect of the type of text being summarized (narrative and expository); and children’s difficulties. Fifth graders in elementary school were divided into two groups according to two summary writing conditions: Condition 1 (with questions about the base text) and Condition 2 (without questions about the base text). The data showed that (i) the conditions in which the summaries were produced failed to affect the quality of the summaries, (ii) that children produced more elaborate summaries of the expository text than of the narrative text, and (iii) that their main difficulty involved remaining faithful to the content of the base text. The questions had no facilitating effect on the writing of summaries. Moreover, the quality of the productions varied depending on the characteristics of the text summarized.
The experience of competitive anxiety or “athlete nervousness”: a phenomenological understanding
This study problematizes the traditional concept of anxiety in sport psychology, highlighting its technical character according to M. Heidegger. We examine how the sciences tend to stabilize this concept by defining it as a set of propositions to observe, measure, predict, and control athletes’ behavior — deeming this approach as the sole legitimate means of accessing reality in the scientific field. In contrast, we propose a phenomenological perspective to assess competitive anxiety, describing forms of manifestation of this phenomenon, developing phenomenological considerations on anxiety as an affective tonality, and understanding it as a constitutive dimension of sporting practice that follows, enables, and opens the field of competition to athletes.
Genesis and structure of automatic writing: Freudism, automatism, and parapsychology
This study investigates the influence of Régis and Hesnard’s Freudism on the genesis and structure of the surrealist experience of language known as automatic writing. Although it acknowledges the leading role of Freudian ideas on the genesis of this experience of language, it but argues that automatic writing stems from the synthesis between Freudism, the concept of automatism in parapsychology, and the psychology of Pierre Janet. This study defends that this synthesis of references aimed to develop an categorically surrealist experience of language beyond the operative mimesis of psychoanalysis and other theories. From this perspective, this study aims to contribute to studies on the relationship between art and psychoanalysis and on the history of psychoanalysis in France.
Psychology, climate change, and renewable energy sources: psychology of place and popular resistance
Based on a study on popular struggles related to the construction of the “Rei dos Ventos I” wind farm in Galinhos-RN, this study reflects on the role of psychology in the face of global climate change and the expansion of wind farms in Brazil under a popular perspective. By critically assessing the phenomenon, we understand its advancement as a reproducer of the expansive dynamics of capital within the framework of the main proposals to face climate change giving rise to a “green-faced” capitalism. We discuss an ethical-political perspective for environmental psychology regarding the environmental issue and climate change that takes the perspective of oppressed majorities, thinking about climate change from its roots and understanding that the real confrontation of the problem occurs by strengthening collective struggles that strain the capitalist social order.
The meaning of accountability in the female context of socioeducational internment measures
The regulatory frameworks inaugurated a new model of socio-education aimed at accountability for infractions. This historical-cultural psychology study aimed to analyze accountability meanings and practices in institutionalized adolescents and professionals who work in a female socio-educational unit. A semi-structured interview was used, the data of which were analyzed by constructing categories. Results showed that the meaning of accountability reduced itself to individual accountability focused on cognitive aspects leading to blaming the adolescents and disregarding their macrosocial dimension; such meaning emerged in institutional accountability practices, which involve educational, therapeutic, and, above all, retributive actions that inflict pain. Thus, we found that a protective discourse based on the logic of institutional security justifies the expansion of interdictions and deprivations, increasing the possibilities of punishing.
The June 2013 days have been the subject of numerous discussions in social psychology, sociology, and political science and constitute an important analyzer of the vicissitudes of the democratic system in Brazil. This essay cross-sectionally reads psychoanalysis, political science, and its author’s experiences as a professor and researcher at a federal university, a psychoanalyst, and an activist. This essay describes two events that took place at the extremes of the decade from 2012 to 2023 in the university context that serve as an empirical and experiential substrate of the problems concerning political action, desire, and democracy that emerged from the so-called “June Days.” The first event involves the strike by teachers of federal institutions of higher education that preceded the 2013 journeys and the second reports an experience of representation in May 2023.
Professional stress, burnout syndrome, and pandemic correlations
This study aims to differentiate occupational stress from burnout syndrome and to correlate them with the 2020-2022 COVID-19 pandemic. This study first carried out a literature review to conceptualize its chosen terms and to find their symptoms and instruments to diagnose them to then discuss their possible manifestation due to the need for work and home adaptation resulting from the social isolation imposed by COVID-19. Although both aspects bring psychological distress and socially and emotionally affect individuals, their differences require a unique approach from psychology professionals in their everyday organizational life.
Process evaluation of a psychotherapeutic program for elderly people with depression
The provision of psychotherapeutic practices for older people with depression in Brazil remains deficient. The projected increase in this population requires improving health interventions in this area. This study evaluated demand, reach, and delivered and received doses based on the Cognitive Behavioral Care Program for Older People with Depression in a public polyclinic. Quantitative and qualitative instruments were applied, including recording forms and semi-structured interviews. In the first 19 months, 75 people were referred, 45% were screened, 30% were treated, and 8% were discharged. Attendance ranged from 36 to 100%, with good satisfaction and engagement among participants. The behavioral module was the most used (27%), corroborating studies on interventions to treat geriatric depression. The completeness rate of the action plans totaled 60%, indicating the need for adjustments. The process evaluation showed important aspects for improvements and adaptations of the Program to its context and target audience.
Critical formation in dispute: the psychosocial dynamics of a housing movement
Based on the theoretical framework of liberation psychology, we seek to investigate the possibilities of critical formation provided by an occupation of housing movement that focuses on their respective collective spaces. Participant observation and interviews with key representatives of each identified space (a Pentecostal church, capoeira circles, and general assemblies) were adopted as field procedures. We observed that the practices, discourses, and relationships of each collective space enable specific social interests and divergent commitments that more greatly tend toward an emancipatory perspective or endorsement of the established order, strengthening or challenging the political project of the social movement. The community environment of the occupation, crossed by competing psychosocial processes, expresses itself in a certain conflict that finds in the critical formation of the collective a situation of dispute, whose elements go back to the class struggle itself.
Self-deprecating memes and suicidal humor: a literature review and image analysis
This literature review and image analysis aimed to study self-deprecating memes and humor with suicidal connotations considering the current society and its demands as precursors of this phenomenon that is largely present in generations Y and Z. We understand sharing self-deprecating memes as an escape valve from the constant demands for happiness and productivity operating in capitalism in which individuals in depressive states can feel embraced and represented by identification in memes or even more hopeless about the world and the future.