This study presents different modalities of ethics - guardianship, interlocution, social action, care and finally the ethics of listening to the subject's unconscious desire - as analyzers of the care practices conducted by psychologists in the field of Social Assistance. In an institutional approach, cases found in the literature are presented, in a questioning way, which can be considered examples of the practices performed by psychologists and other workers who operate in a wide variety of healthcare establishments. It was concluded that psychologists may encounter, in the field of Freudian/Lacanian psychoanalysis, consistent theoretical-technical and ethical-political instrumentals to guide institutional performance in an effective and informed way so as to include the individual as a citizen and also as the subject of the unconscious.
Social assistance; Ethics; Public policies; Practice (Psychology); Psychoanalysis