Psychology and Legal Abortion: A Commitment to Community and Feminist Social Psychology

Abstract

Psychology, as a science and profession in Brazil, emerged from the paradigms of the Global North. Guided by a clinical, privatist, subjective and elitist approach, it remained little involved in the issues that afflict the Brazilian people. Over the decades, psychologists began to be called upon to act within public policies, having a certain centrality in some of them, as is the case of policies for women victims of sexual violence in the health sector. However, the educational process seems not to follow this trend, with undergraduate curricula still focused on training psychologists to work only in private practices, producing a mismatch and possible inappropriate conduct in the public sphere. This article presents reflections arising from a master’s degree research on the practices and knowledge of psychologists working in public health services, in Belo Horizonte, with women victims of sexual violence who opt for legal abortion. A total of ten psychologists from the SUS/BH participated in narrative interviews, who were contacted through the snowball methodology. These narratives revealed a certain difficulty in conducting psychosocial practice and that traditional clinical theories are still the most widely used. Based on these reports on what “psychosocial” would be, community social psychology showed itself aligned with the SUS principles and its use, together with intersectionality, can be a valuable tool for working with these women.

Keywords:
Community Social Psychology; Intersectionality; Public Policies; Legal Abortion