Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: THALITA FERNANDES SANTOS

“I HAVE A VOICE IN MY HANDS”: ONTOLOGY OF AN ORGAN - HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY UNDER AN ONTOLOGICAL TURN 

Philosophical anatomy of the hands; health psychology under an ontological turn; LIBRAS.

Based on the experience of working in the area of Health Psychology under an ontological turn with deaf people, who use Brazilian Sign Language, I intend to reflect on the philosophical anatomy (Saint-Hilaire, 1818) of an organ of the human body, more specifically the human hand of deaf people, as an organ that does not speak, but makes people speak. Through the communication actions of this organ (gestures, anatomy, joints, etc.) I seek to bring to the fore a dimension little explored in the field of Health Psychology: the ontology of human body organs. This is an area that seeks to understand the importance of an organ of the human body in its ontology, serving as an instrumental guide to the development of Health Psychology under an ontological turn. Inspired by Étienne Saint-Hilaire (2018), it is guided by the question: how does an organ of the human body connect to the world? How does an anatomical philosophy of the hand, as “hands that speak”, adapt to the world of language, influencing the work of psychologists in mental health services? This is an exploratory descriptive research, seeking to investigate, through stories and anecdotes told by psychologists, how this anatomical philosophy gains ontology. As a technical product, alternative communication boards/cards will be created, with the aim of expanding the communicative repertoire, expression and understanding between deaf and hearing people, thus minimizing possible accessibility barriers faced by deaf people in public mental health services. This project is included in line 1 - Clinical Practices and Mental Health and will be submitted to the Ethics Committee for Research with Human Beings of the Multidisciplinary Health Institute of the Federal University of Bahia (CEP-IMS/UFBA).