Based on the discussion of the differences between Freud and Winnicott's views on culture, this text strives to set the signification of myths and taboos. Within this context, we discuss the issue of Social Aids, thai cluster of social representations and discriminatory postures with regard to Aids, which function is to create defensive barriers against the Aids-associated contents: "itlicit" sexuatity, destructiveness, impotence and death. The issue of Social Aids is delineated as the product of a culture more and more characterized as a narcissist onct which attributes are discussed in relation to some specifically Brazilian cultural features. This culture is eventually reinstated, through a winicottian reading, as a culture of false selves. Aids is pui forward as both a product and a denunciation (and thus a symptom) of this culture.