GESTALT-THERAPY AND CARE IN MENTAL HEALTH: A POSSIBLE AND NECESSARY DIALOGUE

Abstract

When it comes to issues related to human health, the context in which it is inserted is always taken into account, since the environment exerts numerous influences on the health / disease dynamics and care processes. In the field of mental health is not different, insofar as this man is perceived as part of this context. The distance from the biomedical model and the modern understanding about man have brought new ideas about mental illness, repercussions on new modes of care. In keeping with this thinking, the Psychiatric Reform has given new insights into the paradigm of mental illness. This was placed in parentheses and subjects previously reduced to symptoms and subjected to less humanized forms of care, began to receive special attention and support from public policies in the implantation of new forms of treatment (AMARANTE, 2007). With regard to Gestalt therapy, it has also brought valuable tools in understanding the dynamics of health / illness and care processes. Its primary objective is to create possibilities for the individual to reestablish the satisfactory contact with the environment, from its natural potential for growth and development (D'ACRI, G; LIMA, P; ORGLER, S, 2007). Illness would be a disharmony, an imbalance in the man / world relationship, where each individual has a particular way of being-in-the-world, and consequently a proper way of becoming ill. In this way, the Gestalt vision goes beyond the description and understanding of the symptoms, to go in search of the meaning of the pathology and the subjective experiences of the person who is ill (RIBEIRO, 1997). The work aims to reflect on possible contributions of the phenomenological-existential look and dialectical conception of the health / illness dynamics defended by Gestalt-therapy, behind the praxis of mental health care. The methodology used and qualitative approach, through bibliographic research in the basic literature of Gestalt-therapy and theoretical productions in the area of ​​mental health. The results indicate that the dialogue between Gestalt therapy and mental health care is possible and necessary, since this approach brings the notions of uniqueness, freedom and responsibility for the human / world relationship, ideas also advocated in the new paradigm of care mental health. Keywords: gestalt-therapy; mental health; humanization of care; psychosocial attention.