PROBLEMATIZING THE FIELD OF PSYCHOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE: ABSENCES AND EMERGENCIES OF THE KISS NIGHTCLUB’S POST-FIRE WORK

Resumo

Este artigo visa a analisar ausências e emergências de saberes e práticas psicológicas das ações realizadas diante do incêndio na Boate Kiss, em Santa Maria/RS/Brasil, ocorrido em janeiro de 2013, a partir das narrativas de psicólogos/as voluntários/as. Foram entrevistados/as 13 profissionais de ambos os sexos. A partir da sociologia das ausências e da sociologia das emergências e de autores que trabalham uma perspectiva crítica da Psicologia, foram delimitadas as ausências que emergiram desse trabalho quanto aos aspectos da formação em Psicologia, das técnicas e da relação das intervenções com a cidade e os coletivos. As emergências referiram-se ao fortalecimento das experiências pelo protagonismo local, à criação de práticas singulares e redes colaborativas afetivas na construção coletiva de trabalho. Foi possível colocar o campo de saber em análise e problematizar a formação quanto ao seu compromisso social, implicado com a defesa de uma perspectiva integral dos sujeitos e articulada com diferentes saberes.

Palavras-chave:
Psicologia Social; intervenção psicossocial; formação do psicólogo

Resumen

Este artículo busca analizar ausencias y emergencias de los saberes y prácticas psicológicas de las acciones realizadas frente al incendio en la casa nocturna Boate Kiss, en Santa Maria/RS/Brasil, ocurrido en enero de 2013, a través de las narrativas de psicólogos/as voluntarios/as. Fueron entrevistados/as 13 profesionales de ambos sexos. A partir de la sociología de las ausencias y la sociología de las emergencias y de autores que trabajan una perspectiva crítica de la Psicología, se delimitaron las ausencias que emergieron de ese trabajo cuanto a los aspectos de la formación en Psicología, de las técnicas y de la relación de las intervenciones con la ciudad y los colectivos. Las emergencias se refirieron al fortalecimiento de las experiencias por el protagonismo local, la creación de prácticas singulares y redes colaborativas afectivas en la construcción colectiva de trabajo. Fue posible colocar el campo del saber en análisis y problematizar la formación en cuanto a su compromiso social, implicado con la defensa de una perspectiva integral de los sujetos y articulada con distintos saberes.

Palabras clave:
Psicología Social; intervención psicosocial; formación del psicólogo

Abstract

This article aims to analyze absences and emergencies of knowledge and psychological practices of the actions at the fire at Boate Kiss, in Santa Maria/RS/Brazil, in January 2013, based on the narratives of psychologists volunteers. Thirteen professionals of both genders were interviewed. From the sociology of absences and the sociology of emergencies and authors who work on a critical perspective of Psychology, we delimited the absences that emerged from this work concerning aspects of Psychology Education, techniques and the relation of interventions with the city and collectives. The emergencies referred to the strengthening of the experiences by the local protagonism, the creation of singular practices and affective collaborative networks in the collective construction of work. It was possible to analyze the field of knowledge and to problematize the formation regarding its social commitment, implied with the defense of an integral perspective of the subjects and articulated with different knowledge.

Keywords:
Social Psychology; Psychosocial intervention; Psychologist Education

Introduction

On January 27, 2013 a fire occurred in a nightclub in downtown Santa Maria/Rio Grande do Sul/Brazil. It is estimated that more than 600 were injured and 242 died (Krum & Mafacioli, 2016; Noal, Vicente, & Weintraub, 2016; Siqueira & Víctora, 2017). The actions taken in response to the outcomes generated during that night were characterized by a network of support among different institutions, such as the National Force of the Unified Health System (FN-SUS), the Civil Defense, the Brazilian Air Force, Professional Councils, the 4th Regional Health Coordination and the Municipal and State Health Secretariats (Noal et al., 2016; SES/RS, 2014). Many volunteers who assisted in the actions were health professionals with varying levels of training and experiences, with different concerns and methodologies, and many of them had never previously worked together, which turned out as a challenge for coherent communication for alignment of actions (Cabral, Simoni, Adamy, & Belloc, 2016).

We start from the perception of "event" as something that can be taken as a historical fact, but which is guided by a singular experience (Sodré, 2012). Hence, here the meaning is infused in the narrative construction, which is attributed to the memories about a fact and the reflections made on such fact after a certain time has passed. This construction "reinvents life itself, instead of just explaining it or understanding it" (Zanella, 2013, p. 21).

In order to compose our reflection about this event, we have related the conception of sociology of absences and emergencies, discussed by Boaventura de Sousa Santos (2002, 2007), as a research and extension of the knowledge and practices camouflaged by a conservative rationality. The author starts with what he called the sociology of absences, that is, the overcoming of the monocultures of scientific knowledge, linear time and the naturalization of the differences present in many fields of knowledge, influenced by the assessment of the modes of action of the modern sciences. In addition, the author seeks to break with the universalism from the suggestion of five ecologies, which are: the ecology of knowledge, which postulates a dialogue of scientific knowledge with popular and lay knowledge; of temporalities, which comprises different historical times; of recognition, which proposes to overcome the hierarchies of knowledge; of the trans-scale, which allows the articulation between local, national and global aspects; of productivity, centered on alternative production apparatuses.

In this article, we sought to analyze the absences and emergencies in the narratives of the professionals regarding psychological knowledge and practices when the professionals must deal with such a critical event, problematizing the field of psychological knowledge. Thus, we start from the premise that this critical event served as an analyzing device of the field of Psychology and helped us to problematize the demands that Psychology has received in the present and the offers that it proposes.

Method

This article is part of a Doctoral Thesis defended at the Graduate Program in Social and Institutional Psychology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). We have interviewed 13 psychologists who worked as volunteers in the emergency services generated by the fire at the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria in 2013. We have conducted 11 face-to-face interviews and two written testimonial interviews, and we have created a focus group with three psychologists who had participated on the individual interviews, carried out from January to August 2016. The interviews’ extracts will be identified with the letter C (volunteers) followed by a number, according to the order the interviews were carried out; the letter G will precede the focus group extracts.

The initial request for the narrative interview was based on Jovchelovitch and Bauer (2008): I would like you to tell me (to write) about your experience (sensations and perceptions) once you watched the news of the fire at the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria on January 27, 2013, and how was your participation in this event? After accomplishing this part, when the participants could talk or write freely regarding the time and sequence of the events, other questions more oriented to the purposes of the research were asked. We sought to maintain the same approach both in face- to-face interviews and written interviews), other questions more oriented to the purposes of the research were asked. We sought to maintain the same approach both in face-to-face interviews and written interviews. We emailed the broad question about the experience and, after the interviewees sent their response, we sent a second email with the remaining questions.

This article complies with the ethical procedures outlined by the Brazilian National Health Council. The research was submitted to the approval of the Institutional Review Board of UFRGS under the Protocol n. 1532874. The individuals who decided to participate in the interviews and in the focus group agreed with the Free and Informed Consent Form (TCLE).

The analysis of the narratives was intertwined with elements of the theory of the sociology of absences and the sociology of emergencies, developed by Boaventura de Sousa Santos (2002, 2007), and by authors within a critical perspective of psychology (such as Guareschi, 2002; Jovchelovitch, 2008; Rose, 2011). After analyzing the interviews, we defined sets of analysis and, in this article, two of them will be presented: "the critical event as a field of analysis of psychological knowledge: absences of knowledge" and "emergencies in the psychological field before the critical event: construction of knowledge against the waste of experience".

Results

The critical event as a field of analysis of psychological knowledge: absences of knowledge

The professionals shared the memory of the discomfort generated by this experience, pointing out that they went to the workplace with theoretical and practical devices used in the work routines, but they had to be reformulated. From the extracts shown below, we are able to follow the process that tested all their professional knowledge before this demand:

To be very honest with you, I think it was a job that tested the training that we have, because in the [management] position I was, I was very worried about how everything was being conducted, because my role was to guide, to shelter, to reflect. (C2)

And what touches us in a situation of urgency like this is how easily we get lost. We put into play everything we had learned so far, we became vulnerable too, so that we could bear the uncertainties, the unknowable. (C12)

When the employees have to put their training to the test, they show the intensity of their destabilization in the face of such a challenge and reveal how this can weaken the professionals' knowledge in the face of a clash with the unfamiliar, in which their vulnerability is exposed and the sense of helplessness germinates. These extracts reveal the restlessness before this experience:

Even if it was super dependable, it would dismount at some point, because at some point that technique would not work, or it would not be applicable, and we would have to disrupt it, disorganize it and rebuild it some other way, collectively, less individually, with a less individualistic view of psychology. (C3)

It was very disruptive in that sense; it was beyond any academic teaching in the sense that it did not have that reliability of being surrounded by some kind of diagnosis or institution that took care of it. It was a very chaotic business, and there were limits with which each person could deal with what was appearing. (C1)

Some characteristics that mark the education, such as being centered in the individuality and governed by diagnostic parameters, were problematized. The critical event became an analyzing device for providing this kind of examination when thinking that Psychology had to "question itself" once it revealed a contrast between different representations of the professionals themselves about the field of knowledge, the practices, the demands that we should answer, who we should listen to, where we should (or should not) go.

I believe that in a situation like this we need guidance, be it from more experienced teams, or a strategy of conduct, just to help us to reestablish so we can have basic working conditions, since it deals with an experience that moves us a lot, emotionally and physically, it causes feelings of helplessness, of shared vulnerability, of pain. And not to standardize a practice or apply a technique... How to sustain a standardized mode of action in the face of so much difference? I believe that was and is the biggest challenge. (C12)

I heard some people say, "We never had any kind of preparation”, and I do not think we did either, but maybe these people did not realize, or did not grasp, that it's not about taking a course to deal with Emergencies and Disasters, because I think our profession deals precisely with the unusual, but the unusual inside the office, for example, where there is the possibility of preparing even if minimally before ... unlike this situation that provided us no previous preparation, we were exposed. (C9)

These statements helped us to reflect on existing absences in the model of formal education that we have, rooted in a standardized structure that guides the ways of acting in Psychology and that does not support professionals in situations that escape this pattern.

The event incited the professionals to think about what to do with their theoretical and technical apparatus, as well as undermined their confidence in conventional intervention technologies centered on words and in a delimited/instituted space of action. The incitement of being in the face of an invasive and "pure experience" put the psychologists in front of their physical limitations, as the interviewees describe:

But this human factor was very bare for Psychology, I think that's what happened there, I think it showed up there, saying, "Look, I think you guys have a lot of techniques, but there's something screaming and it’s along with that action, and it was all bloody there, it was all in the pure experience". Because then you can’t theorize it. (C5)

You have to know how to calm yourself so that you can let others come or not come... those who work with the Emergency have to know how to do it, because sometimes we let our anxiety get in the way, and we want to put words where there are no words, because when it is a situation of that level, there are no words to be said. (G, C6)

These passages point out that one of the difficulties of the work was the limitation of hegemonic techniques, rationalist perspectives, centered on the word. The issues that permeated the memories of the collaborators before their practices also denounced the impossibility of maintaining the invisibility of their bodies, both their own and others’. The literal relation of the place of the psychologist's body in the intervention is something present in the narratives, and it makes think about the discomfort of the professional before the corporal emergency, that diluted their safe, familiar professional space.

Therefore, when we consider the relationship with the physical body, we identify an absence in the psychological field of knowledge. We have a challenge "in hand": to include significant aspects of relationships, aspects which extrapolate words and literally reach the body of both the other and the psychologist himself in the work routines. However, we do not refer here to a machine-body, manifested only in behaviors that can be measured in protocols, but to a language-body, which is revealed within the suffering.

The extensive commotion generated by the critical event affected directly the survivors and their families, as well as the relatives of the non-survivors and the professionals who worked directly in the care of these people. However, such commotion also reached the residents of the city who were involved directly or indirectly in the support after the fire. Thus, the city came to represent this collective mourning, in suffering. In such an event, the city becomes an acting stage, the walls of the listening spaces collapse, and the street becomes the arena to speak about suffering. In this way, the fragile relationship with the collectives and the political action are aspects brought in the narratives. The extracts below point to the fragility of the actions before the collective the city’s demands:

We have worked very little when it comes to the city, I realize this, because there was a difficulty in facing this suffering, because where does it all go? You got it? That's what I feel. (G, C3)

I think that [the city] was the stage, but that psychology could not act. I think it was the stage, but it was acted in a sectored manner, so this is how I see it. (G, C6)

Accordingly, it is understood through the statements that Psychology did not have a great performance and visibility when it came to the collective and/or public spaces. In an event like this, the collective dimension emerges and gains greater visibility, as well as it tries to broaden the possibility of listening to and seeing the suffering in the public sphere. The perception of the effects in the city sensitized these employees both as mental health professionals and also as residents of that territory, as the following reports point out:

I recognize a lot of the city’s movement, and this is a complaint I see from parents is that nobody wants to talk about it anymore, and this is a symptom that maybe it's very difficult to talk, so people don’t want to talk, and they don’t, there isn’t someone who does this mediation and can help you talk and give a purpose for those words. (G, C6)

People want to know, when I left here I did this, I went to Porto Alegre... and it seemed that there was a greater interest on what happened, I felt better talking over there than when I was here, because people over there wanted to know, or they relate Santa Maria to what has happened here, and here the whole thing is silent. (G, C3)

These narratives allow us notice something that does not usually appear: the implication of Psychology with the city, the city as a stage, the city and its desires to keep quiet or to speak up. The difficulty of dealing with this macro political aspect is recurrent from the psychological field attached to the privatizing and individualizing tradition. Thus, from the following statements of employees, we understand that, years after the fire, little was done to evaluate local actions and prepare professionals for situations and to take a closer look at the needs of the city.

I don’t know if I would call it visibility, I think I would call it an effect, because maybe I feel a lack of seeing these effects of, of course, the visibility, but I think I would call it an effect, it is about being able to see these effects in the city, I think very little has flowed to the city as a whole. (G, C3)

It’s like the weight of the event disappeared little by little, and then what? And politically, there are people who will gain from that, right? So this is the risk of not showing up, of not doing this other work, because then we do not force the political side in the sense of that, of who was here, on the part of the State, on the part of the Federal Government or the Council of Psychology who could call it and do, and reflect on it, because at that time there could have been exactly that movement of “let's think about the city and let's think about the city with a cultural perspective”. (G, C9)

What can be observed is that there is a reduction of the present through the individualization of feelings, that is, a reduced listening of the collective, reinforcing a culture of silencing of suffering, or particularization of suffering. Thus, the relationships with the city and with the collectives are diluted aspects in the memories of a work that flowed between the fingers of Psychology. Next, we will deal with what we call emergencies caused by the critical event and affected by the work of psychologists.

Emergencies of the psychological field in the face of the critical event: the construction of knowledge against the waste of experience

Event though the critical event had a wide national and international repercussion, the predominance of local professionals in the actions was significant. Guided by the guidelines of public policies and professionals with other experiences in critical situations, much of what was done in Santa Maria was unique and entered the history of practices in psychology in critical events, as the extracts show:

I think the Psychology of Santa Maria was very important in this process, not that outsider psychologists did not have important roles, this has already become a joke among my friends, there you are, a week later watching Fantástico [Brazilian TV show] and there is a psychologist who is not from Santa Maria at a press conference, you see, I don’t mean to undermine the work of psychologists who are from other places, but Santa Maria has enough psychologists who are able to talk about it, who organized themselves for it, who struggled, so I missed seeing a local psychologist speaking about their process on TV. (C5)

There was a "hyper" exposure of the city, and I think it's a little bit maybe because of this association of this place, psychologists are the ones who deal with it, I think it strengthened this trademark, it's something that became more clear, I don’t know, suddenly the recognition of this place and its function... the recognition of the relevance or the scope of the place of Psychology, and it seems that this event kind of put it on display. (C1)

These narratives shed light on the value of local experiences. The arrangement of different kinds of knowledge within the field of psychology and other fields generated a web of responses offered by Psychology in the face of this fire. However, considering that each event is unique, the collaborators point out to this production, revealing that the remains of this experience still produce effects on the contemplation and action of these professionals.

After the initial strangeness, there was a need to rescue the sensitive aspects of the practices of a professional training that works through creativity. These aspects, brought by the collaborators, are in opposition to the absences produced in relation to the standardization of practices, to deterministic and homogeneous evaluations, as the statements show:

I think [the training]does prepare us, but we have insecurities as to what to do in the face of a disaster, or something new. I think that psychology, the exercise of psychology, involves a lot of creativity, that's part of our work, so it's there from the beginning to the end of our professional education, it deals with how you work with improvisation. (G, C6)

In the end, I do not know for sure what is left of this experience as teamwork, networking, emergencies ... I have always believed in the importance of plasticity/flexibility within our practice as psychologists, an area of knowledge that does not have the certainties and predictabilities of the formal sciences. (C12)

In the narratives, possibilities to overcome this adversity arise, summoning aspects of improvisation and flexibility before the actions that must be carried out. The creation resource is accessed in the face of new demands, while maintaining respect for singularities.

It is interesting to follow, through the reports, this movement of appropriation of work and place in the face of an incident that surprised everyone and that initially generated astonishment and a sense of emptiness. After overcoming the "not knowing what to do" phase, the narratives reveal a well-demarcated professional place in which there is a recognition of the power of professional training. There is a fundamental distinction between theoretical knowledge and active knowledge, the latter linked to practical skills, to skills acquired both in and through affective, flexible action.

We turn to the last aspect that characterizes the emerging knowledge and practices of experience demonstrated by the narratives of the collaborators, who emphasize that knowledge is something provisional and constructed collectively, through an understanding of otherness, and comprised of affection and solidarity. When these professionals resorted to their formal and theoretical knowledge as the first resources when called to work, they came across their fallibility. Thus, other kinds of knowledge were activated, such as those related to otherness and solidarity:

I think this experience served in a way to make this process expand, to witness other scenarios of practice ... the feeling I have is that this knowledge is built, and it is built when we work with each other. (C2)

He felt summoned by himself and went, but then, when he was there, he became a collective work of Psychology ... I think he had a support from the Psychologists together there, from the way they were looking, from the hug, from encountering each other, because at the same time there were many colleagues who we had not seen for a long time and we were meeting at that time and there was such a strong support, so that is why I speak from the individual to the collective. (G, C6)

The affections engrossed in the work, promoted through the encounters with one another, fueled the professional journey in this work. Otherness is at the basis of social representations, and these are the clearest expression of consensual wisdom. It is from this place that one can say that such knowledge is "built when one works with the other".

The actions demanded by the critical event were unprecedented in the professional repertoires and not very significant in the training courses. One of the responses to the feeling of instability generated by the challenge brought by the new was the activation of an affiliation and sense of belonging to the profession, which can generate feelings of association and recognition:

"I'm a psychologist, I've come to help". Saying "I am a psychologist" when I said "I am a psychologist I've come to help", it made me feel like I could do something with this, you know? And this triggered me automatically, I heard people say so “oh I was home listening to the news, thinking whether or not I should go and such”, but with me the thing was more direct, you know? (C1)

It's one thing for me to make a cake, buy some water and bring it to family members, all right! Many of my colleagues did, and I think that's just as valid as going to help as a psychologist; but now, if you volunteer as a Psychologist, do you understand? You have to know what your role is there ... so I think the volunteer organization goes a long way from this call that comes from you recognizing yourself as a Psychologist, having a social commitment there. (C5)

We cannot say that one experience is better than the other or exempt certain practices carried out by different theoretical perspectives within Psychology. However, we can say that they are different forms of action and experiences and, therefore, exchanges can be enriching, since each critical event is unique and evokes the creation of singular practices coherent to the existing conditions in response to each territory.

Discussion

The emergent absences in the narratives of the collaborators illustrate invisible aspects in the field of knowledge of Psychology, revealing what we lack or that is not valued. The first absence pointed out was of a critique of itself, which is so essential to a critical perspective of science; the second was in terms of detachment from bodies; the third reveals the fragile relationship with the city and political action. The emerging knowledge and practices in narratives about experience point to three aspects: an appreciation of the psychological knowledge of local professionals; inventiveness, improvisation and the singularization of psychological practices; a collective-affective work that reinforced a sense of belonging to the professional category.

It took a critical event to make emerge a way of doing Psychology that resists and is trying to make room in the gaps of the dominant knowledge guided by the values of modernity. Reflecting on the questions asked by the professionals about the call and practices made by many colleagues became a trigger for us to understand how this moved (in more than one sense of the word) Psychology in the face of the effects of the fire. The practice of dismantling prevailing and dominant knowledge in the field of Psychology, by creating origins, strategies and solutions for everyday experiences, starts from the recognition of the incompleteness of the knowledge itself and from the possibility of errors within the instituted knowledge.

Among the absences that translate knowledge and practices not very visible in the professional activity in the face of the critical event in Santa Maria, the fragile relationship with the collectives arose, a relevant aspect to the potentialities of listening to the territory. Argentina's experience with the effects of the fire in Buenos Aires (in the Cromañón Republic) alerts to the symbolic value of collective issues such as justice and social recognition as important instruments for the fundamental repair of pain, since it is necessary to see it as a social emergency (Aronowics, Marina, & Romero, 2007).

The absences that traveled through the narratives of the collaborators reinforce the epistemological conception that goes through the history of Psychology as a predominantly positivist vision of knowledge. The sociology of absences seeks to break away from what is already in place in order to shed a light on aspects that are not valued. There are kinds of knowledge and practices that are not evidenced in the face of the supremacy of certain ways of knowing. The sociology of absences arises in order to combat the devaluation of these modes of knowledge and the tendency to reduce the present from the invisibilities of local experiences (Sousa Santos, 2007).

Based on the problematic presented, the efforts to understand the knowledge and practices produced from the experiences of the psychologists in this critical event can displace the established place of the education of Psychology as predominantly linked to the issues of the individual and private, with techniques focused on the word and with few interactions with the body. In addition, such a search may disabuse an action unrelated to public and political aspects, focused on “pathologizing” daily life. Thus, for the reading of absences in the field of knowledge of Psychology, we need to start from the idea that knowledge does not exist in isolation: it is the experiences that outline its production and its employability from the improvisation and singularization of knowledge and practices. There is a technical exercise of accommodating and determining the realities, reinforcing the fidelity to protocols. We can reflect on the issue of the differences generated by the non-dialogical specialties within the field of psychological knowledge itself. In order to do so, Sousa Santos (2002, 2007) argues that the elimination of other forms of knowledge reduces the present by eliminating other realities that are outside the conceptions of science, ignoring that the possibility of coexistence of different knowledge enables a space of potency and creation. This perspective corroborates the principle of Moscovici's (2012) cognitive polyphasia, which recognizes that what is essential is not the study of specialized thinking, be it scientific, "psychological" or a cognitive style, that is, an exclusive attribution to a kind of egocentric thinking. The absence was constituted in this experience as the denial of the plurality of resources and the disrespect for the singularity of the demands.

For Coimbra and Leitão (2003), man and society, psychology and politics are historically produced territories that are crossed and constituted, and in which struggles are carried out on a daily basis. "In affirming these specific kinds of knowledge we are abandoning the hierarchies, the crystallized, hard and inflexible limits that try to demarcate the sacred territories of each of these kinds of knowledge, which try to isolate them and, therefore, to hierarchize them" (Coimbra & Leitão, 2003, p. 14). For Sousa Santos (2002, 2007), we need a new way of producing knowledge, for the rationality that prevails influences the ways of thinking, of doing science, in the conception of life and of the world. The author has named as “indolent reason” this type of predominant way of thinking, which considers itself unique and does not recognize its need to be revisited.

The concept of expertise evokes a type of specific authority employed by the specialist. In this sense, psychology experts have gained a certain privileged position because it is this knowledge that ensures understanding the internal determinants of human conduct. Therefore, such knowledge "affirms its ability to provide the appropriate foundation in knowledge, judgment, and technique, to the powers of the 'experts' of conduct wherever they have to be exercised" (Rose, 2011, p. 26). This inheritance of “psychologization” of the daily life was also revealed in the critical event: "With this 'tyranny of intimacy', any anguish of daily life, any feeling of unease is immediately sent to the territory of 'sense of lack', of 'shortage', to which psychology specialists are vigilant and attentive"(Coimbra, 2004, p. 46). These are historically constructed attributions created so that psychology is able to "account" for human suffering, to enable the expression of the unspoken, to deal with the unspeakable.

As we historicize this experience of Santa Maria, we offer an alternative that fits the concrete horizon and aims to know more about the real possibilities of psychology’s performance in the face of this critical event. This reassessment of affiliation and belonging, as actors in the field of psychological knowledge, proved to be one of the emergencies that the critical event produced. The reflections that this experience provided for these professionals reinforced their positioning in the face of psychological knowledge and practices.

The emergencies were created from the criticism that Sousa Santos (2002) calls indolent reason, which refers to the various underlying forms of hegemonic knowledge, both philosophical and scientific. In dealing with the "prominence of local actors" as an emergency, we argue that we must abandon the idea that there is only one way of knowing (science) because it ignores the complexity of knowledge and the richness implicit in the strategies built by ordinary subjects to deal with natural and social environments. This type of non-dialogical posture aims to de-authorize the knowledge that is in common experience, considering it as a deviation or a distortion. Thinking in this respect, Sousa Santos (2002, 2007) indicates that it is unsustainable to rely only on a linear evolution of knowledge, but we must recognize the sharing of traditions and innovations that coexist in social relations.

The process of "creation and hybridization of singular practices" is made possible by the dialogue between different kinds of knowledge and has the sense of incompleteness of any and all modes of knowing as a starting point, that is, confrontation and dialogue are governed by the way in which each of the kinds of knowledge in dispute guides their practices in overcoming challenges, including differences in the processes of exchanges and in the construction of solutions. The "affective collaborative networks in the collective construction of work" sought autonomy and co-management of actions. This acknowledgment that societies are constituted by various temporalities recovers and makes visible practices and sociabilities, making them intelligible and credible objects of argument and political dispute. We recognize that the plurality of knowledge is not enough: we need to make visible the so-called local knowledge and "to question why some kinds of knowledge are limited while others receive the status and legitimacy of universality. Hence the need to evaluate the dominant forms of production of knowledge in order to produce a critique of strategic actions "(Jovchelovitch, 2004, p. 28).

The basis of an emergency psychology lies in the investigation of alternatives that fit the horizon of possibilities. Therefore, we seek to expand the present by valuing these experiences and future possibilities in the field of knowledge of Psychology, seeing the future not as infinite and vague, but as concrete even if uncertain. According to Mayorga (2012), we must take ourselves as a point of reflection and identify points that occupy secondary places in different spaces. Analyzing the emerging field of knowledge and practice in Psychology is not something simple; for this, we start from a powerful experience, as an event analyzer of emergencies unveiled by the practices of Psychology.

The sense of lack and incompleteness of the fields of knowledge in Psychology are powerful motivations for the work of translation within the psychological knowledge. According to Veronese (2007, p. 55), the goal is to build alliances between different kinds of knowledge and practices in the search for a certain unity "that is only valid as a unit in divergence, as a dialogue in diversity". Thus, it is up to Psychology to fight for the rescue of creation and emergence of emancipatory forms of subjectivation by the search for other ways of acting in this area, and for this we need to have space to produce them and guarantee them recognition.

Final considerations

When we try to analyze the absences and emergencies that appeared from the professionals' narratives regarding knowledge and psychological practices, we identify the problematizations before the generated demands. When we consider the critical event as an analyzing device for the absences and emergencies of psychological knowledge and practices, we discover absences regarding training in Psychology, techniques and the relationship with the city and the collectives. From this, we advance in the analysis and we name as “absences psychology” the limitations found in the field of knowing before the arena of action that is centered in the word, in which the subjective aspects overlap contact and the physical signs, therefore missing the awareness of the whole. Moreover, in this perspective of absences psychology, we emphasize the treatment of individual and private effects over an expanded understanding of the collective and public effects that are enhanced by this critical event. The training in psychology was put in analysis from the questions that the critical event produced in the field of psychological knowledge and practices. This experience destabilized the training in Psychology they received and its models based on certainty, and pointed out the weaknesses of the expertise, which provided the conditions for us professionals to feel the need to create new ways of performing psychology, it moved us in more than one sense of the word, that is to say, at the same time the critical event generated both commotion and mobilization.

On the other hand, the emergencies raised by the professionals referred to the strengthening of local experiences and knowledge, by giving locals a central role, by creating particular practices and by developing affective collaborative networks in the collective construction of the occupation as psychologists. We have also based this study on the psychology of emergencies, as it warns against the contradiction and uncertainty that are involved in the work routine within Psychology. Therefore, this critical event made us think of how we ended up normalizing certain ways of acting, in which the search for legitimating evidence stands out for the creative experiences that make it possible to shelter the suffering instead of resorting to resources of control or avoidance.

The knowledge and practices within psychology that emerged from the critical event revealed that the work in response to the effects of the fire was a trigger for reflecting on the field of psychological knowledge. This critical event dispelled certainties in the psychological field. The training in Psychology (in which orality constitutes its main pillar for its practices) was put to question once the participants had to face actions that demanded the use of the body as their main working tool. The strangeness of the contact with the body of others and the sensations and limitations of the psychologist's own body were themes that emerged. We understand that the use of the word always involves certain rationality, and the manifestations coming from the bodies in the form of hugs, lamentations and moans do not allow the rationalizations, because they are pure expressions of emotions and affections.

The deliberation on the social commitment of Psychology in the face of this critical event has not been exhausted, because we can always go further into the present. It is up to psychology, through its knowledge and practices, not to contribute to the legitimacy of an individualistic society by summarizing suffering to the private sphere, but also to question the “pathologization” of life and sufferings by self-claiming as the herald of knowledge.

The work experience studied here was a indication of what is possible, in which significant marks were built and should be applied not only to atypical situations, but also to training and daily work within psychology. It is when collectivity meets that the possibilities of production of care and production of psychological knowledge emerge. For that, it is from our experiences that we can reflect on the (im)possibilities of creating our reality and interfering in the world.

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• Development agency: Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil [CAPES], process number 1532805.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  03 Dec 2018
• Date of issue
  2018

History

• Received
  08 Sept 2017
• Accepted
  25 June 2018