ABSTRACT
This article aims to reflect about the statute of the subjects-users in the context of the Brazilian psychiatric reform. Based on an ethnographic research conducted in 2010 and 2011, which the objective of critically analyzing the process of the Brazilian psychiatric reform, from the point of view of the users of mental health services, the 'user' category is problematized and points out the complexity and the relevance of the singular and institutional experiences of these subjects in the consolidation of the public mental health policy in Brazil. The analysis indicates the need to confer an epistemological statute to the knowledge produced by such subjects in the context of the Brazilian psychiatric reform.
KEYWORDS:
Social policy; Deinstitutionalization; Research subjects