This article discusses the notion of subject hypo-sufficiency that is present in texts focusing on health promotion. It presents the results from a doctoral study in which five doctoral theses and four master's dissertations on health promotion were reviewed. The analytical framework was built around the notions of social dynamics, the rationales used and visions relating to the project of modernity present in the material researched. From this, the etiologies for producing the concept of subject hypo-sufficiency and therefore the place that this production reserves for it can be interpreted. Significant occurrences of this notion of hypo-sufficiency were observed and it was seen to approach scientism.
Health promotion; Rationality; Subject; Epistemology