“If it is for Playing dominoes, I Would Rather Play at Home”: Reflections on Idleness in mental health services

Abstract

This article was developed from reflections generated during the experiences of the first year of the Psychology Residency Program in Mental Health at the Hospital Ulysses Pernambucano / University of Pernambuco. A speech by a CAPS Transtorno user - "if it is for playing dominoes, I’ll play at home" (sic) - was the starting point in which a question was asked about whether the moments of idleness can be understood as therapeutic or alienating to the subject. If aligned with the Psychiatric Reform guidelines, a health professional function is to invest in a clinic that prioritizes the singular and, for that, their notion of rehabilitation must encompass the negotiation processes, which can be operated through the implication of the subjects in their self-care, together with other actors with whom they form a social bond. Thus, the Singular Therapeutic Project seems to be a powerful device for the management of phenomena such as idleness, which seem to generate obstacles to health care processes, both by health agents and users. In order to understand whether idleness is alienating or therapeutic, it is necessary, therefore, to assess, on a case-by-case basis, the meaning that each subject gives to it.