This article analyzes the use in public policies of an image concept that has various names: man, identity, I, self, personality, ego, soul, psyche, subjectivity and individuality. It discusses some of the resonances of this image-concept, the harm it causes and its vicissitudes when applied to public policies. The object of analysis was the National System of Socio-educational Service (Sinase). The article demonstrates that this analysis cannot be restricted to a merely theoretical question, given that it involves invention, production and management of ways of life. That is, that when incorporated to a public policy, this image-concept produces meaning, normative laws, spaces of interaction, practices of conduct, financing policies, agents and actors - that is, it produces ways of life.
Socio-education; Identity; Sinase; Public policies