Possibilities and limits of subjectivity in the face of the health-disease process: Canguilhem, Lukács and the pioneers of Collective Health

This essay aimed to analyze some aspects of subjectivity's role in normalizing health and disease as phenomena materialized in individuals and collectivities. To do so, it rescued the contributions of Georges Canguilhem in "The Normal and the Pathological", where the possibilities of the subject to normalize life in the face of a new pathophysiological state were highlighted. Subsequently, we recovered the categories of work, objectification, exteriorization, and alienation in Georg Luk & aacute;cs'"Ontology of Social Being" to show objective limits to subjective capacity. Finally, we show how this debate was conducted among the pioneers of Collective Health, especially under the influence of Canguilhem. At the same time, we show that some aspects of Marxian theory on the objectivity-subjectivity relation are present in the arguments of the authors of Collective Health, which may bring them closer to the Lukacsian debate. Given this, we conclude that the subject still has aspects to be deepened in Collective Health and that Luk & aacute;cs' theoretical categories can contribute to mitigating excesses and filling gaps.