A teoria dos afetos de Spinoza e a psicologia social brasileira

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the spinozian philosophical foundations of the theory of Bader Sawaia, a Brazilian social psychologist. It is a conceptual analysis, based in bibliographical research. The main objective is to understand the relationship between Spinoza's work, specifically the text of the book 'Ethics' and the theory elaborated by Sawaia, which postulates the category of 'ethical-political suffering' within Critical Social Psychology. The relevance of the study stems from the possibility of broadening the discussion about psychological theories by investigating their philosophical heritage. The analysis is centered in three central aspects: the meaning of emotions, the concept of human power, the conception of the State and the definitions of Freedom and Ethics. Some approximations were observed but also divergences between the perspectives, which converges with the initial hypothesis of the investigation. The influence of other authors such as Agnes Heller and Lev Vygotsky in the elaboration of the category was also confirmed.