Transforming mental health institutions has been defying because it is necessary to deconstruct ideologies in all areas of knowledge. Therefore we want to discuss contents, beliefs and values held by professionals, mental health service patients and their families in relation to mental health. Reification is a concept of the Social Psychological Theory and it has been used to discuss people's concepts towards mental health. This study has been developed with thirty people: 10 professionals, 10 users and 10 family members in Marília area (SP) outpatient service. Data were collected in semi-structured interviews, according to a technique developed by Figueiredo (1989). The interviews were a technical adaptation of content analysis. Based on these data analysis, the following subcategories were found: emotional instability, loss of normality pattern, biological vision, inherited predisposition and stigma. These six subcategories suggested that often mental health concepts are stereotyped from acquired knowledge and praxis maintains the status quo, without creating new intervention models.
Mental Health; Mental Disease; Beliefs; Values; Concepts
