[The social sciences in the health field in Brazil: notes for its history]

In this work the author reviews, along general lines, the origins and development of the social sciences in the health field in Brazil, with emphasis on the part played by the departments of preventive and social medicine, which extended the scope of undergraduate medical school instruction in the sixties to embrace social issues, and introduced the first subjects and disciplines of the social sciences. He also describes graduate instruction and makes general remarks on social science research in the health field. Originally presented at a Seminar on "The Social Scientist in the Health Field," where participants had to relate their personal experiences, the work tries to evaluate some aspects of the author's experience.