(De)construction of truths: An analysis about integrative and complementary practices in health

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze the formation of a system of truths concerning the public policies for integrative and complementary practices in health care (PICS), especially in the National Policy for Integrative and Complementary Practices (PNPIC), which included nonconventional knowledge and practices in the Brazilian National Health System (SUS). We thus analyze the PICS as an invention that emerged from the PNPIC, in a qualitative investigation inspired by Michel Foucault’s genealogy. This study enables the reflection on the system of truths that constitute the PICS, converging in discourses and practices of health promotion that places the responsibility of the health and disease processes on the lifestyles of individuals. Concurrently, this very discourse drives individual and collective attitudes using the device of risk, producing bodies and subjectivities controlled by neoliberal policies.