Epistemological, historical and contemporary aspects of the psychological duty service: reflective essay

Abstract

This essay aims to reflect the epistemological, historical and contemporary aspects of the psychological duty service. It situates the psychological duty field in order to think about it from the idea of a service, and not an approach or area. It indicates the service epistemo-logical aspects by the emergence of the field of psychological counseling, by the transition from experimental psychology to applied psychology, guided by functionalist, psychometric and personalist knowledges, in which Carl Rogers was decisive in proposing a non-directive intervention. Discourses how non-directive counseling was received and institutionalized in Brazil as a discipline and internship practice in Psychology training centers, transforming it-self into the psychological duty service, with (dis)continuities in relation to the previous mo-dality. It ponders some contemporary aspects of psychological duty by recognizing that it: is restricted to a university practice of service provision that still needs to be consolidated in the professional field; requires more discussions regarding its online applications, evaluations and appropriations by the cognitive-behavioral approach. It concludes that this reflection re-pres-ents the psychological duty in its past, present and future.