This paper analyzes the psychologist's performance in Social Assistance Reference Centers (CRAS) in towns in Rio Grande do Norte state (RN). Fifteen CRAS' Psychologists were interviewed in the different microregions of the state, concerning socio-demographic profiles, professional training, services offered at CRAS and activities performed by these professionals. We identified that these professionals both perform a set of activities that match the official doctrines at the scope of Social Assistance, and, at the same time, make use of the historically hegemonic model in psychologist's training and performance. Also, the work at Social Assistance policies has made the psychologists face a working class even more impoverished, whose demands are unlike those usually met by the Psychology. The paper concludes discussing the potentials and boundaries of the psychologist's performance within that public policy and the structural hindrances of the policy itself into the capitalist mode of production.
social policy; social assistance; psychologist's performance
