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.
“Parental alienation” in the courts of justice between the analyst discourse and its opposites
This article analyses the discursive positions occupied by agents involved in parental alienation lawsuits and sheds light on psychoanalytic discourse as the opposite of other discourses, reflecting on its (im)possibilities within the judicial arena. This documentary research employed a data processing method of discourse analysis from a Lacanian perspective. Our analyses of the procedural records show that, under the increasing judicialization of private life, the turns of discourse between litigants, legal operators and specialists produce a homogenizing objectification of parental conflict, commonly leading to the erasure of the subject. The power of the analyst’s discourse consists of promoting discursive openings and uniquely repositioning subjects in relation to their family ties. We expect the study to support the production of more critical and skilled practice by psychologists working in the judiciary, transforming crystallized views on the subject of parental alienation and enriching dialogue between psychoanalysis and law.
Copyright (c) 2026 Psicologia USP https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Psychoanalysis and street people: first service or reoccurrence?
This essay investigates how the initial relationship is built between street people who seek assistance for their demands and social assistance workers. We verified a gap in the literature on this initial care in public services, although studies addressing this relationship and its impasses contribute to changes in the reality of subjects and in the formulation of social policies. To analyze and intervene in the first consultation, we will use Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis and the concept of “sensitive moment.” These references allow us to examine important points before, during and after the first appointment, and to propose a work direction that can intervene in the dimension of reoccurrence and build a different horizon of possibilities.
“De quebrada em quebrada”, resistance and dissidence: An analysis of identity construction in the poetic narratives of MC Daleste
This study seeks to understand the identity references present in the funk music of MC Daleste (Daniel Pedreira Senna Pellegrine, 1992-2013). Methodologically, we analyze three songs and follow Ricoeur’s “narrative arc”: analysis of the singer’s social context and life (Mimesis I); analysis of the songs (Mimesis II); and connection between life story, current context, and narratives (Mimesis III). Our discussion addresses different aspects of the identification processes of marginalized youth. We conclude that Daniel Pellegrine’s life and work reflect the dynamics of power and domination experienced by marginalized groups in Brazil.
This article investigates the indications in Sigmund Freud's texts of an underlying conception of regulation structures, starting from Piaget's consideration about the structures of psychic life. A systematic lexical analysis of Freud’s complete works in German searched for terms such as “Regulierung” and “Kompensation” in psychic contexts. Results evince the implicit presence of of the regulatory structures in the freudian text. These structures appear in the work as intrinsic regulatory mechanisms which operate by resolving internal conflicts, adapting to social demands, and maintaining mental equilibrium. The research shows how regulatory structures are central in Freud’s work and suggests future studies to expand lexical analysis and explore clinical applications.
Teatro Oficina: tragycomediorgy as re-existence
From the ‘tragycomediorgy’ approach created by Teatro Oficina, which can be found in the Bacantes play, this article reflects on some influences on the style developed by the company and its possible subjectivizing effects. By combining tragedy, comedy and orgy, Teatro Oficina has developed a subversive practice to critique the prevailing dramatic representation in a certain type of theater, promoting a new type more interested in the strength of the ritual encounter and in the expressiveness of the Dionysian choir. Devouring the Greek tragedy Bacchae, in an anthropophagic appropriation influenced by Oswaldian thought, the company allows its audience to experience the tragic universe in a Brazilian manner, contaminated by humor and carnivalization. By promoting transgressions in stagnant artistic forms, Teatro Oficina’s work opens gaps for art to be an instrument of re-existence, operating aesthetic transformations articulated with new forms of life.
Contemporary paradoxes for career guidance and counseling: constructing another approach to another world
Career guidance and counseling constitutes a specialized field of applied psychology that focuses on helping individuals reflect on and plan their working future. This field currently encounters several paradoxes that we aim to identify and discuss. Paradoxes consist of co-occurring contradictory and conflicting situations, making them challenging to synthesize. Drawing from social psychology and recent developments in the counseling field, we will explore these contemporary paradoxes and indicate strategies for addressing them. Today’s world significantly challenge the construction of narratives, identities, and histories. We face a lack of validated social references, disinformation, and an overwhelming focus on the present that hinders future planning. Additionally, the flexibilization of work and the individualization of life complicate our understanding of ourselves and the world, making it hard to create dignified career trajectories. We will discuss potential strategies for coping with these challenges, emphasizing key elements crucial for effective counseling interventions.
The Naoki case: a perspective between the drive for mastery and Attachment Theory
This article discusses the “drive for mastery” (Bemächtigungstrieb) as used by Freud, analyzing its similarities and differences with Bowlby’s Attachment Theory. The demonstration is based on the case of an autistic child, Naoki Higashida, using his autobiographical book The Reason I Jump. First, we draw a parallel between attachment and the expression of mastery; next, we examine the distinction of this drive; and finally, we highlight the aspects of this drive force in a psychopathological condition. In this development, we emphasize the presence of the apparatus of mastery in autism, marked by stereotypy, whose function is to establish psychic order. This apparatus operates primarily through the voice, its object of appropriation/rejection. In Naoki’s case, this is expressed in the formulation “we look at the voice.” Lastly, we underline the pathogenic aspect of mastery, as well as the child’s invention in the transition from “being for oneself” to “being for the other” in the social bond.
The social dimension of trauma according to Sándor Ferenczi’s contributions
This article presents Sándor Ferenczi’s contributions to our understanding of the social dimension of trauma. We first discuss texts written by Ferenczi starting in 1928, in which he focuses on detailing his understanding of the traumatic. Next, we address the social dimension of trauma based on the notion of disavowal, thus presenting the importance of studying Ferenczi’s work for understanding not only individual trauma but also social trauma, as occurs in situations of racism.
Greenspan’s contributions on affect and transference at pre-representational levels
This article analyzes Stanley Greenspan’s proposition about certain patients who, due to deficits in so-called structural capacities, would not be able be unable to elaborate and differentiate mental representations in the context of transference dynamics. We start by assuming that these capacities need to be evaluated during psychic treatment based on Greenspan’s understanding of the affect function in the transference relationship. Based on comparisons with Freudian conceptions of affect and transference, Greenspan’s proposal is explored in its clinical and theoretical implications. As a result, we highlight the contributions of the DIR/Floortime model’s creator on affect as the sensory organizer capable of providing intention to actions and connecting the dimensions of human experience that support emotional and intellectual development at more complex levels.
Violence against women, feminism and behavior analysis: A literature review
This bibliographical review characterizes the production of behavior analysis research on violence against women, and to what extent this production dialogues with feminist perspectives on the topic. Bibliographic search was conducted in national and international journals using terms and combinations referring to the topic, followed by reading and analyzing the titles, abstracts and keywords of the identified studies. In total, 30 studies were selected for the characterization. Occurrences of feminist terms were identified and evaluated to understand whether behaviorist perspectives dialogue with feminist interpretations. Results indicate that this dialogue has grown significantly, especially in Brazil. We suggest that the three investigative axes proposed by behavior analysis can be useful in different ways to interpret and transform the phenomenon.
Overcoming the structured family as inclusion of diversity: an experience report
This article discusses the training of 91 healthcare professionals from Niterói attending the Escola da Família Program in 2022. Study methodology included participant observation, field diary records, and analysis based on the hermeneutic-dialectical method. Sensitizing professionals to parental practices that promote mental health and prevent intrafamilial violence was achieved progressively through linguistic interactions within the groups, fostering the exchange of practical and theoretical knowledge. The training discussions critically addressed violence against diverse family configurations, including gender issues, LGBTQIA+ parenting, and the expanded concept of family. The role of healthcare professionals in building an inclusive care network is emphasized. In conclusion, the expanded notion of family should be recognized beyond the hegemonic heterocisnormative model.
Ghostly representations: trauma, affects and psychic representations in the face of Derridean hauntology
This research aims to demonstrate how the concept of spectrum proposed by Jacques Derrida can be related to elements of Freudian psychoanalysis, broadening the effects and repercussions both in the psychoanalytic clinic and in the processes of cultural research. To achieve this objective, the article is divided into three parts: the first deals with the concept of spectrum from Derrida’s point of view; the second presents the notions of trauma, affect, and psychic presentation in Freud’s early writings; and, finally, the third deals with the conceptual relationship between both theories, allowing a glimpse of how both are linked, allowing the feedback between them to configure new research horizons.
Risk and protective factors for pro-aggressor and defender rolls in family context
School violence episodes entails the roles of victim, aggressor and observer. Research on the observer usually focus on personal and school variables, but an important context to investigate is that of the family due to its influence on student behavior. Thus, this study surveyed family-related risk and protective factors for the role of observer defender and pro-aggressor. A total of 1,536 high school students randomly sampled by clusters participated in this cross-sectional study by answering scales related to the family and the observer role in a violence episode. Instrument completion lasted 40 minutes. Results showed three models where prosocial parenting practices are crucial protective factor, together with parental communication, as they increase the probability of being a defender by 500%. In conclusion, parenting aimed at teaching prosocial practices increases the likelihood of students participating as a defender in school violence.
Perinatal clinical practice: Psychoanalytic reflections on perinatal mourning
This article investigates the specific mourning process experienced by parents following perinatal death. After providing a definition of clinical psychology and perinatal mourning, we discuss the clinical practice surrounding death during this period. Parents are compelled to interrupt the identity transformation process initiated by the transition to parenthood and face the death of a “virtual object,” concept coined by Sylvain Missonnier which forms the basis of this work. For perinatal mourning to be experienced, an objectification process of the fetus/infant must occur; however, such mourning will still retain a narcissistic dimension. To grieve a part of themselves, parents will require not only a supportive environment but also the establishment of a potential space where creative constructions, such as the analytic space, can take place.
Health processes and the COVID-19 pandemic for homeless people
This research investigates the health processes experienced by homeless people in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic. Individual structured interviews were conducted in person and remotely with 23 homeless participants from three Brazilian cities, aged 18 and over. Data analysis followed content analysis and used the ATLAS ti 5.2 software based on the categories “ways of life”, “health-disease processes” and “impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic”. Lack of employment and income, hunger, drug abuse as a strategy to endure suffering, poor quality of sleep due to the fear of violence, and difficulties in accessing food and health services are all issues for homeless people that were exacerbated during the pandemic, bringing visibility to social inequalities in health.
Humanity and Animality in the History of Madness
This paper seeks to understand how the concepts of animality and humanity impacted the conception of madman in contemporary times. Since the Middle Ages, the theme of madness has emerged as an emblematic element in history, impacting the conception of the Western man. Linking madness to animality has implications for the inhuman methods applied to treating madness. As such, this theoretical study concatenates historical data from the work of Michel Foucault (1978) to analyze the concepts of human and animal and their applicability to the phenomenon of madness. Additionally, Frantz Fanon’s decolonial perspective is used to bring the aforementioned phenomenon closer to the operations conducted during the colonial period, revealing that the dehumanization of the different emerges as a systematic strategy for subjugating so-called “deviant” portions of society.
Women and alcohol abuse: trajectory of care and monitoring at CAPSad
Alcohol abuse is a reality in Brazil and worldwide. While data shows a growing trend regarding this phenomenon among women, health services are still poorly prepared to care for this population. Thus, this study investigated the trajectory of care and monitoring at CAPSad for women with problems related to alcohol abuse. A qualitative research was conducted with eleven women monitored at CAPSad using narrative interviews. Data were analyzed according to Grounded-Theory. Results revealed that for most participants, CAPSad was the only specialized service accessed. The bond with professionals and the existence of specific groups for women were preponderant factors for participant attendance at the service and its positive evaluation.
Patterns of Absences in the Life Trajectories of Girls Serving Socio-Educational Custodial Sentences
Defending the rights of children and teenagers is a fundamental issue for building an egalitarian society. In recent decades, a series of legal apparatuses and public equipments have been created but many weaknesses still persists, specifically in the context of teenagers serving socio-educational custodial sentences. In this article, we discuss the gap between what is prescribed and the reality on the ground of a public equipment responsible for executing socio-educational measures of deprivation of liberty in Minas Gerais, based on the results of a PhD research conducted in an inpatient unit. We identified a recurring pattern of failures and shortcomings on the part of the protection network institutions that affects not only children and teenagers, but also their families. These are trajectories marked by social inequality and which, as a result of ethical-political suffering, are devoid of a future perspective.
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.
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.
Antipsychology and the Marxist critique of psychology: An eclipsed issue
This article discusses the proposal for an “antipsychology of liberation,” whose goal is not to reform or humanize psychology, but to promote its historical-concrete overcoming via political action. It resumes an issue eclipsed in the critical debate of Brazilian psychology since the late 1980s: the necessity of negating psychology as an autonomous science and specialized profession. Drawing on Brazilian authors such as Marco Antonio de Castro Figueiredo, Oswaldo Hajime Yamamoto, Wilson Coutinho Júnior, and Pedro Henrique Antunes da Costa, and inspired by the Marxist notion of “withering away of the state,” the text recovers this Marxist antipsychological tradition and argues that human emancipation requires the social reabsorption of care functions currently delegated to psi professionals. It contends that, in a socialist society, new social relations would enable the “withering away of psychology” and the reintegration of care into collective life.
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.