Psychiatric-Social Investigations on Collective Morality, Public Judgment, and the Limits of Individual Autonomy: Are “Ethical Lies” Necessary?

This clinical-theoretical essay, structured in the format of a reflective scientific article, analyzesthe growing conflict between public morality and individual ethics in the contemporary Brazilianpsychosocial context. Based on four decades of psychiatric and psychotherapeutic practice, andenriched by philosophical, psychological, and sociopolitical theory, the work defends thestrategic necessity of moral discretion—and at times, of lying—as a survival mechanism in theface of collective moral simplification. The text proposes that, under excessive social andpolitical control, moral action and individual initiative become publicly condemned andinstitutionally impossible.