Augusto Cury has moved in a few months from the psychology and self-help shelves to the electoral ballots of Brazil. The author of titles such as "O Vendedor de Sonhos" and "Ansiedade: Como Enfrentar o Mal do Século" is one of the candidates competing this Sunday, October 4, for the presidency of the country, in the first electoral experience of his career. He is running for Avante, with former deputy Júlio Delgado as the vice-presidential candidate, after the Superior Electoral Court formally approved his candidacy on September 11.
Cury has tried to occupy during the campaign a space away from the confrontation between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Bolsonarism. He defines himself as centrist and has made criticism of polarization one of his main banners. "I have a capitalist mind and a heart that cares for the disadvantaged," he explained in an interview with Folha de S.Paulo, where he stated that Brazil is trapped by the confrontation between the Lula and Bolsonaro families.
From doctor and bestselling writer to presidential candidate
Augusto Jorge Cury was born on October 2, 1958, in Colina, in the state of São Paulo, so he has just turned 68 years old. He is a doctor by training and later developed a career linked to psychiatry, emotional education, conferences, and book publishing. According to his own website, his works have sold more than 42 million copies and have been published in over 70 countries, although the figures come from the promotional information of the author himself.
Among his best-known works is "O Vendedor de Sonhos," which was later adapted into a film, in addition to a long bibliography dedicated to issues such as anxiety, emotional intelligence, parenting, the meaning of life, and the functioning of the mind. Although he is usually classified within self-help literature, Cury rejects that label and does not consider himself a "coach." He prefers to define himself as a researcher of the mind and creator of knowledge.
His public notoriety was, therefore, well before politics. Years of books, courses, educational companies, and conferences built a personal brand that Avante decided to take advantage of when it announced his pre-candidacy in April. The candidacy was later formalized in August and validated by the Electoral Justice, with the number 70 and the alliance "Brasil dos Nossos Sonhos," formed by Avante and Agir.
A theory about the mind questioned by specialists
A central part of Cury's intellectual trajectory is his called Multifocal Intelligence Theory, which proposes its own explanation about the construction of thoughts, emotions, and the functioning of the mind. The writer has made it the foundation of a good part of his books, courses, and educational projects.
However, its commercial recognition does not equate to a scientific validation of that theory. Five psychiatrists from institutions such as the University of São Paulo and the State University of Rio de Janeiro consulted by Folha de S.Paulo pointed out that there is no scientific evidence that validates Multifocal Intelligence as an accepted theory within psychiatry or academic research on the mind. Cury maintains, for his part, that his work constitutes an original contribution to psychological and emotional knowledge.
This contrast is relevant because the candidate has directly brought part of his professional language to the electoral campaign. He talks about "emotion management," "culture of peace," "digital intoxication," and the need to reduce political aggressiveness, concepts that appear recurrently both in his books and in his public interventions.
The richest candidate in the election
Cury's entry into politics has also allowed for the understanding of the business dimension of his trajectory. The candidate declared before the Electoral Justice a wealth of approximately 242.6 million reais, which places him as the presidential candidate with the highest declared wealth in this election. Among his assets are business shares, financial investments, credits, and real estate.
Cury attributes a good part of his fortune to the sale of publishing and educational businesses and to subsequent investments, including projects in the agricultural sector. He has explained that he founded and sold a publishing house and educational companies, and claims to maintain investments in the exploitation of products such as rubber, eucalyptus, citrus, or African mahogany.
His wealth declaration also generated controversy during the campaign after Folha reported on companies linked to the writer in Brazil and the United States that were not initially listed in the documentation submitted to the Electoral Justice. His team responded that they would review the data and correct possible inconsistencies.
What Augusto Cury proposes for Brazil
His program mixes institutional reforms, entrepreneurship, education, and technology. One of his most relevant proposals is to replace the current Brazilian presidentialism with a semipresidential system, in which there would be a prime minister in charge of part of the political management. Cury even claimed that, if he wins, he would propose the governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas, for that position.
He also proposes to end presidential reelection, limit the terms of the ministers of the Supreme Federal Court to eight years and move towards district voting. In economics, he advocates achieving zero deficit, expanding entrepreneurship, and increasing the efficiency of the Administration, although during the campaign some of his economic proposals have been criticized for their lack of concreteness.
One of his most characteristic ideas is to create 10,000 "entrepreneurship clubs" in schools, universities, churches, and other institutions, in addition to facilitating credit for small businesses. He has also defended reducing the number of ministries and giving a prominent role to artificial intelligence and robotics within the Government, technologies that he considers fundamental in light of the aging population and the changes that may occur in the labor market.
Artificial intelligence, one of his major warnings
Cury has made technological transformation another of the axes of his discourse. He talks about a future "tsunami" caused by artificial intelligence and robotics and argues that Brazil must anticipate it through training, entrepreneurship, and modernization of the State. During an electoral interview, he even defended the creation of a specific executive structure dedicated to AI and robotics with broad autonomy.
His program also proposes to use technological tools in public security and State services. At the same time, the writer dedicates a good part of his discourse to the opposite side of digitalization: he criticizes the effects that, in his opinion, social networks have on the emotional health of children and adolescents and talks about a "digital intoxication" that would be deteriorating the ability to concentrate and increasing anxiety.
From minority candidate to gaining visibility in the campaign
Cury began the presidential race with reduced percentages in the polls, but gained notoriety after the first televised debates and the increase of his presence on social media. CNN Brazil recorded a strong increase in searches for his name and his followers on Instagram after one of those debates, when he went from being known primarily as a writer to gaining greater visibility as a candidate.
This growth has not been maintained uniformly throughout the campaign. In the Quaest poll published on October 3, conducted with 3,702 voters on the 2nd and 3rd and with a margin of error of two percentage points, Cury appeared with 3% of voting intention, just like Ronaldo Caiado and Renan Santos. Other institutes have offered different figures, so these percentages should be read as estimates and not as an electoral result.
The writer closed the campaign insisting on his rejection of polarization and resorting again to easily recognizable phrases. "Neither picanha, nor rifle," he said during an event in his hometown Colina, using two symbols associated respectively with the speeches of Lula and bolsonarism to try to present himself as an alternative to both blocks.
An outsider who arrives at the polls without political experience
The peculiarity of Augusto Cury compared to many of his opponents is that he had never held an elected office nor had he developed a party career before 2026. His electoral platform fundamentally comes from a trajectory built as a writer, businessman, speaker, and disseminator of his own theories about the mind. He even considered a presidential candidacy in 2010, as he has recounted, but ended up renouncing due to the opposition of his family and other professional commitments.
Sixteen years later he has finally made the leap. The result of this Sunday will determine how far an unusual phenomenon in Brazilian politics reaches electorally: a writer of books on anxiety, emotions, and personal development turned, at 68 years old and without prior experience in public office, into a candidate to govern the most populous country in Latin America.