Listening in an Emergency Care Unit: propositions of a psychology informed by psychoanalysis and inspired by Psychosocial Care

Abstract

We believe that the construction and exposition of reflections based on the praxis of a health worker in a hospital setting has its value, especially if the intention is to debate how to listen to subjects in psychological distress in a place where the main object has traditionally been to treat organic diseases from the perspective of hospital-centered medical knowledge. The aim of this article was to reflect on the experience of a psychologist in an Emergency Care Unit, guided by psychoanalysis and inspired by Psychosocial Care. The method we adopted combined theorizing about the experience of dealing with cases in the hospital unit, in the relationship with other colleagues on the team, with bibliographical research into texts on the practices of psychoanalysts in hospitals and the reflections of Costa-Rosa, Luzio and Yasui. The hospital psychologist, warned by psychoanalysis, then makes use of this horizon, which aims to unblock the discourses that are blocked. In these terms, we would add that, along with the transformation of institutional social relations, this scope of action in health makes it possible for our teammates to be equally equipped by the variety of therapies related to the psychosocial stance in hospital.