These theoretical reflections are based on a critical assessment of practices which include the patient's family participation in the treatment of the individual in health services. The objective is to question the health work organization in the clinic approach which values a certain concept of man. When a family member looks for help, health professionals develop practices oriented by the conception of family as a harmonious system. Thus, the health team tries to re-establish the lost equilibrium. This ideal concept excludes the way each element of the family builds and signifies one's history and bonds with other relatives. We conclude that any demand for care should be listened in its singularity. Therefore, the idealized concept of family makes it impossible to understand the emergence of the subject.
Family health; Psychoanalysis; Health care