Health Psychology and the New Paradigm: New Paradigm?

Abstract

The present article aims at reflecting on psychology’s professional model in Brazil. The psychologists’ departure from the private clinic to a greater concern with the social context leads to an increased interest in the health area, extending to the public sphere and to the demands of the institutional context. Health Psychology springs from the need to foster health and to think about the health-illness process as a social phenomenon. We discuss the nature of primary, secondary and tertiary intervention, the models of curative and preventive intervention and the emergent paradigm in opposition to the traditional one. We also emphasize the need to know the institution and the real state of public health in Brazil, favoring a critical view of psychology in relation to illness, hospitalization and sociocultural relations. We conclude that the training of future professionals must emphasize the specificity of the action, make possible the development of critical reflection on the psychologist’s role, insertion and professional identity, with a bio-psycho-social view.