Entre dois mundos - uma psicologia em construção: relato de vida e proposta curricular para a formação em psicologia na Guiné-Bissau

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the author's academic and professional journey in the field of Psychology—spanning two vastly different cultural contexts, Brazil and Guinea-Bissau—and presents a proposed curriculum for psychology training in Guinea-Bissau. The narrative is rooted in personal experiences marked by structural, emotional, and academic challenges, given the scarcity of resources and opportunities in Guinea-Bissau, particularly within the mental health sector. The author describes key aspects of her training, including her academic path, undergraduate internships, and the experience of grief as a pivotal moment that sparked her interest in Psychology. Special emphasis is placed on the role of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT); this approach, encountered during her training, influenced a shift in her research focus toward cognitive processes. The general objective of this research is to analyze the author's personal, academic, and professional journey in Psychology through an experiential account, with the aim of developing a curriculum proposal for psychology training in Guinea-Bissau. Thus, the study seeks to bridge individual experience with the structural needs of the Guinean context, thereby contributing to the development of the field within the country. The methodology adopted in this dissertation is a qualitative approach grounded in an experience-based account involving critical reflection, linked to a comparative international analysis of psychology curricula. This methodological choice is justified by the nature of the study, which aims not merely to describe a personal, academic, and professional journey, but to understand how this trajectory—shaped between Guinea-Bissau and Brazil—allows for a critical examination of the challenges facing psychology education in a country that currently lacks a higher education program in the field. In this sense, the experience-based account serves as a starting point for generating situated knowledge, enabling the integration of lived experience, sociocultural context, professional training, and theoretical analysis. The chapters present the author's educational journey from Guinea-Bissau to the start of her master's studies in Brazil, while also contextualizing the challenges facing the mental health sector in Guinea-Bissau, a landscape marked by a severe shortage of human, institutional, and material resources. This work also addresses the difficulties surrounding undergraduate programs—specifically in psychology—in Guinea-Bissau and the development of a curriculum proposal for psychology training in the country.