The bound of prejudice: inclusion, exclusion and familiarity of the mental health patient from the perspective of the concept of unconscious alliances and the daily work at a CECCO

Abstract

The Centros de Convivência e Cooperativa (CECCO) have been put in place since 1989 in the city of São Paulo as part of a plan to build a network of services which could substitute for the traditional mental institutions. They are usually built in open
public areas such as parks and public clubs. They promote activities which put together psychiatric patients, handicaps, other socially excluded people and the general population. We propose the use of the concept of Unconscious Alliance (Kaës) as guidance in this kind of work. We furthermore suggest the use of this concept together with the concept of territory. From this perspective, the job of
overcoming prejudice and fostering integration should be seen as allowing for a renegotiation of the unconscious alliances. In this article we ll deal with extracts from the daily work at a CECCO as a means to explore different perspectives of our point of view.