State violence and clinical-political device: The effects of psychosocial care in the PAEFI/CREAS on users' life trajectories

Abstract

This article aims to study the effects, together with the users, about the psychosocial work carried out in the Protection and Specialized Care Service for Families and Individuals (PAEFI) at the Specialized Reference Center of Social Assistance (CREAS) in a city in the southern region of Brazil. This is about a qualitative research, in which nine users of the service were interviewed. Two axes were constituted in the thematic analysis: a) the PAEFI's clinical-political device; b) the precariousness of public policies and the familyist-pathological view in the face of rights violations. The psychological attention in the face of the situations commonly experienced by the people assisted in the service is discussed. Acknowledging the potential of psychosocial work when understood as a clinical-political device, that is, a clinical listening work based on an interdisciplinary, intersectoral, inventive perspective, resistant to the naturalization of violence and focused on the promotion of human rights.