Counselling psychology as a frontier area

Abstract

The article uses the notion of frontier to analyze the relations between the field of Counselling Psychology and the disciplinary order of psychology, based on the experience of the Serviço de Aconselhamento Psicológico (SAP) [Counselling Psychology Service] of the Psychological Institute of the University of São Paulo (IPUSP), Brazil. It articulates the theoretical references of the practiced psychological counselling based on the person centered approach and on what is called the post-colonialism in the sphere of literary criticism, namely Edward Said and Homi Bhabha, as well as from anthropology, with Marc Augé and Vincent Crapanzano, and from the history of science, with Bruno Latour, seeking to refine the vision of the identity formation of psychological counselling practiced by SAP. The analysis initiates by presenting some elements of SAP, and then focus on the context and consequences of metaphor and the concept of frontier in the identity constitution of counselling psychology in relation to the disciplinary order within the psychology and the IPUSP, turning finally to comments on their liminality, taking the psychological emergency attendance services as an example. Condition of liminality and minority and/or counter-hegemonic political and ideological positions appear as qualities of psychological counselling viewed as a frontier area.