ABSTRACT
The limits of the subject lie with the symbolical production of culture, as well as with the subjective resources to deal with the challenges of the existential spaces of experience. Individuals and social groups may emerge as agents and subjects of conflicts, as well as of resistance and change in relation to the hegemonic social order. Mental health service users are often permanently pressured by institutional norms, depersonalized discipline and medicalization. These social subjective conditions, articulated with severe cases of mental disorders, make it very difficult for service users to emerge as agents or subjective of their life processes. This kind of superficial criticism of a certain mental health model makes it more difficult to overcome, and even strengthens the criticized dominant model in daily practice. The unexpected subjective productions in the process, far from being considered problems to be overcome, are the raw material on which professional and research actions should be based.
