Social medicalization diminishes or even eliminates people's autonomy regarding disease and health, and generates an endless demand on health services, consequently posing an significant challenge on the Brazilian unified public health system ("SUS"). This article discusses the limits of biomedical knowledge/practices vis-à-vis its contribution in promoting users' autonomy and offers some guidelines regarding how to deal with these limitations; concluding that intervention technologies, biomedical knowledge and its cognitive procedures have contributed very little to promoting patients' autonomy. In view of this reality, the author recommends that a shift in applying biomedical knowledge's, focusing on health professionals' healing role, seeking to reestablish patients' autonomy, prevent and heal genuine ailments, in addition to diagnosed illnesses. It upholds that a reorganization of primary care biomedical clinic's values and goals should be made , including diagnosis' relativity, putting an end to disease and risk ontology, as well as the obsession with control, the fight against biomedical dogmatism, and giving priority to therapy as a treatment.
social medicalization; epistemology; family health program; primary care; clinical medicine; clinical competence