Culture as a pathological element in popular sectors

Abstract

This article analyzes the relationship between territory, subjectivity, and the body in contexts of urban marginality, from an interdisciplinary approach that articulates social ecology, the theory of the production of space, and psychoanalysis. It argues that issues associated with crime, violence, and mental health cannot be understood in isolation or reduced to individual or economic variables, but must be situated within the web of social, spatial, and power relations that shape everyday life. In this sense, the article examines how public policies oriented toward security and social control have contributed to the production of segregated territories and subjectivities marked by exclusion. Likewise, it proposes a reading of habitat as a generator of psychopathological conditions, incorporating the concept of “psycho-space” and its influence on the structuring of the internal world. Finally, the body is addressed as a site where these experiences are inscribed, highlighting its social and historical dimension. The article concludes that understanding mental health in contexts of poverty requires a critical approach that integrates territory, ecology, and subjectivity, opening possibilities for the development of more comprehensive and situated policies.