Autonomy in mental health:

recovery of stories and experiences in alternative practices

Abstract

This paper analyzes the different senses about autonomy which are built up in alternative practices. It also includes some theoretical references that support the sense that the term acquires for the field of mental health and among their workers. Due to the nature of the topic, a qualitative approach is used and semi– addressed interviews are conducted to key informants, from which the axes of meaning that are analyzed are extracted. They slide from the idealization of the category to its relation with the notion of independence. Based on the stories and clinical experiences provided, the subjective value of autonomy in relation to decision–making and the construction of social bonds in the community is located. In short, this work makes it possible to recover the dimension of autonomy as a nodal element for alternative practices, taking into account that its workers elaborate a particular way of understanding and operating with it. In this way, an understanding of the term is created and makes the specificity of a field taking elements from the psychoanalytic perspective.