Daily file of a therapeutic residence and the production of subjectivity

Abstract

The Therapeutic Residences (TRs) are homes for people with mental disorders or alcohol and other drugs abuse, for whom, the lack of housing and the precarious social network are priority issues in their life projects. They receive mainly former inpatients of psychiatric hospitals, being positioned as one of the key instruments for the reduction of psychiatric beds policy in Brazil. This article discusses the daily life of a TR and its subjectivity production effects through scenes observed at the residence or in the neighborhood in which it is located. It is the result of a master’s research in social psychology, developed in the Center of Collective and Institutional Logics, which uses as references the Institutional Analysis and Micro politics. The scenes were built from the participant observation methodology and daily field diary held for six months in a TR in São Paulo city. The house had eight residents, male, between 24-60 years. The scenes were analyzed according to the goals of psychosocial rehabilitation. It was concluded that this TR operates effects on the reconstruction of their senses/values; on the reconstruction of the notion of time and on the responsibility and expansion of social contractuallity. The analysis of the scenes also allowed us to discuss the daily routine on the tension between housing and homing