Abstract
The theoretical, political and social changes in the field of psychosocial rehabilitation, have brought new possibilities for practical research. In this article we investigate the psychosocial processes that influence the solidarity work of the subjects of Mental Health, emphasizing everyday life and senses. The method we use is guided by the conception of the world of Socio-Historical Psychology, in a qualitative epistemology research. We conducted a case study with ethnographic inspiration, through interviews and participant observation in a recycling cooperative in Santos, Brazil. The interviewees were six men and four women: eight of them were users of mental health services and two were technicians. Most of them were more than 50 years, had not completed elementary school and had worked in the cooperative for more than three years. The analysis by Depth Hermeneutics, which resulted from complex institutional relations, showed that the cooperative members bring positive senses to work, whether through affection, financial return or family and social reconfigurations. These new forms of sociability are destroying the barriers of dialectical social exclusion/inclusion and demystifying the prejudice against the ill and the poor. Absence of competition, combined with social participation and a supportive culture, tend to potentiate these projects and their subjects.
Mental Health; Labour; Social Inclusion; Solidary Economic
