Fernand Deligny and a clinic yet to come: mobilizations about ways of caring in children and teenagers' mental health¹

Abstract

This essay presents the trajectory of Fernand Deligny, his work at educational, legal and clinical institutions with children and adolescents, and the political background of those experiences in the second half of the XX century. Revisiting those paths, we established points of contact and reflections on current mental health care practices in childhood and adolescence, mobilized mainly by acting in Child Psychosocial Care Centers (CAPSi) in the city of São Paulo. That scenario of action configures complex experiences that trigger restlessness related to the ways of rendering care and intervening with experiences of psychic suffering and/or non-compliance with social norms based on adaptation, exclusion or incarceration strategies. We discussed how to trigger displacements in certain normative logics of life by creating tools that promote other ways of living with the difference, seeking to establish ethical, aesthetical and political openings for transformations in current thinking, sensibility and clinical actions. In resonance with Fernand Deligny, it is suggested to think non-normative ways of caring inspired by the idea of a clinic of delicacy, acting and near presence.

Keywords:
Mental Health; Child; Child Care; Ethics; Occupational Therapy/Trends