Popular education and mental health: bringing knowledge together and expanding healthcare

Abstract

The text discusses the possible connections between popular education and mental health from the perspective of psychosocial care in the epistemological, practical-assistance, and institutional fields. Based on a brief historical review of the popular education area, particularly in Brazil, and considering Victor Valla's perspective, the study identifies the often diffuse influence of popular education in services that have a closer relationship with the communal life, such as the Psychosocial Care Centers (CAPS) and the Street Clinics (CNAR). This work also discusses the paradigmatic approach between mental health and popular education in the establishment of a new relationship with the knowledge where the myths of neutrality, critical distance, and autonomy of modern science are questioned. In the institutional field, the text identifies a gathering movement between mental health and popular education in the context of public health policies, mainly by strengthening Primary Health Care as the gateway and organizer of the Brazilian Public Health System (SUS). Finally, the article points out the contributions of the approximation between these two areas for the current movements of resistance to the growing threats to democracy, human rights, and the defense of life.