Emancipating care

Abstract

The humanization of care has been a present
challenge in the field of health in general and in
the Brazilian Unified Health System. The purpose
of this article is to discuss the sociological
construct of emancipating care. While care is
strongly identified with common sense and tacit
knowledge, biomedical clinical practice has been
associated with scientific knowledge resulting
from a rationalist epistemological rupture.
Emancipatory care is a hybridization between
common sense and scientific knowledge, or
care and clinic, supported by the professional’s
ethical-political position, to replace heteronomy
with autonomy in the health-disease-care process.
The purpose of this article is to present
an innovative perspective on the discussion of
care, which is not new, bringing some historical
references, not with the purpose of developing
an epochalist or chronological analysis.
The objective is to expand the space for reflections
on heteronomous care as a hegemonic event in
contemporary culture, as well as to expand the
debates on the possibilities of building care
practices that privilege people’s autonomy and
point to their emancipation. It is concluded
that the concept of emancipating care can
advance a second epistemological rupture with
the development of emancipating practices in
the health-disease-care process.