Neoliberalismo e a fetichização de diplomas de psicologia

Abstract

The present study sought to investigate the impacts of the fetishization of Higher Education diplomas in the training of Psychology professionals. Our main hypothesis is that the increase in the emergence of Psychology courses in the city of Goiânia-Go occurred as a result of the fetishization of diplomas, mainly from the 2000s onwards, due to the advance of neoliberalism in the country. For this purpose, the National Registry of Higher Education Courses and Institutions, e-Mec and the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (Inep) were used to collect data on the number of vacancies and courses offered per year. In fact, the increase in psychology courses in the city between 2000 and 2010 is significant, also showing a growing increase from 2020, due to factors such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the psychopathologization of life. For a better understanding of the theme addressed in the study, we will go through the history of universities in Brazil, the history of neoliberalism, the definition of merchandise and merchandise fetish and, finally, the fetishization of diplomas as the main consequence of the commodification of education, a remarkable phenomenon from the 1990’s. Finally, we point out that the relationship between the fetishization of Higher Education diplomas in Psychology, the growing number of courses in private universities and colleges and the rise of neoliberalism in Brazil from the 1990s onwards research and corroborates the initial hypothesis that the accelerated growth of the political and ideological system was directly related to the fetishization of psychology degrees.