The Research Program in Subjectivity, Health and Medicine (PEPAS) was established in January of 2001. The participants are researchers from the Institute for Social Medicine (IMS) of the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). We conduct research and teaching activities in the IMS-UERJ Master’s and Doctoral programs in Collective Health. The field of Collective Health emerged as an academic field in Brazil and Latin America from the intersection of Social and Human Sciences approaches to the field of public health.

Our main goals are:

• To conduct research and teaching activities at the master’s, doctoral, and post-doctoral levels on the social and subjective implications of new developments in biomedicine and biotechnology. We are especially interested in the impact of technical and conceptual developments in psychiatry, neuroscience, and mental health on the formation of subjectivities.

• To develop research on social and human sciences approaches to biomedicine and mental health.

• To promote research, seminars, conferences, and publications in partnership with academic and non-academic institutions in the field of health and related areas.

• To promote academic exchange between researchers and students from UERJ and other universities and research institutes in Brazil and abroad.

• To produce comparative data on psychiatric categories (autism, attention deficit and hyperactive disorder, somatoform disorders) and the formation of identities.

 

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Cogito Ergo Sum 3 Susan Aldworth 2006. Image courtesy of the Artist and GV Art, London.