Abstract

MARQUES, Daiane Maus  and  NARDI, Henrique Caetano. Abnormal and barbarians: gay's life trajectories and psychological clinic. Aletheia [online]. 2011, n.35-36, pp. 109-122. ISSN 1413-0394.

This article discusses the way psychological clinical practice deals with sexual diversity, analyzing life trajectories of five homosexual subjects that went through psychological treatment. The research instrument used was interviews based on life history's approach. We proposed an initial question: How your sexual orientation was approached in your psychological treatment? The goal of this question was to stimulate the interviewed to describe his/hers comprehension of psychological therapy in relation to homosexuality. In the analysis we used the concepts of discursive formation and enunciation from Foucault's archeological perspective in combination of his genealogical approach. The theoretical frame was constructed based on Michel Foucault's and Judith Butler's contributions. Our analysis indicates that the homosexual is still considered in psychological practice as well in society in general as the abnormal, the barbarian. The theoretical perspective that guides the study takes heteronormativity and sexuality device (dispositif) as central concepts to understand clinical practice resistance to the institutional progress of homosexuality social recognition.

Keywords : Homosexuality; Heteronormativity; Life trajectory; Clinical psychology.