The Pavilion for Clinical Observation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, also known as the Pavilion for Admissions, was designed by Professor of Psychiatry João Carlos Texeira Brandão (1854-1921). It was based on the influence of French alienism as a forum for the screening and evaluation of possible mental illness and the forwarding to the National Lunatic Asylum of patients so diagnosed. It was officially created by the Federal Brazilian Decree number 1559 of October 1893 in order to assess the appropriate disposal of suspects sent by the police. The Pavilion was the first University Psychiatric Hospital in Brazil, a pioneer in the integration of teaching, research and clinical practice. The Chair of Clinical Psychiatry, established in 1881, did not until then have a specific place for teaching and practical experience. Over the years subjects were examined and treated, based not only on theories arising from French and later German medical literature but also on the psychiatric practice developed in the Pavilion for Clinical Observation. This was the germ of the consolidation of psychiatric knowledge in Brazil, giving it status and generating a genuinely Brazilian Psychiatric Science.
Aim: To describe the highlights in the personal, professional, and political life of the first Brazilian Professor of Psychiatry. Methods: The article draws on a wide range of documents: newspaper articles, documents of Brazilian medical institutions, scientific articles, theses, and books. Results: João Carlos Teixeira Brandão was a distinguished 19th-century Brazilian psychiatrist and leader of the institutionalization and consolidation of the field of Psychiatry in Brazil. He contributed to the recognition of the professional jurisdiction of the “alienist”, a specialized professional, qualified in clinical practice, diagnosis, and the definition of the boundaries between sanity and madness, based on scientific criteria, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Conclusion: This article highlights the key moments in the professional and political career of Professor João Carlos Teixeira Brandão, from his graduation from the Rio de Janeiro School of Medicine in 1877 to his death in 1921, when he was still active in national politics.
As a case study, we analyze an article of the psychiatrist Henrique Roxo published in 1942 in two publications directed to different publics. The communication of science was intended as part of Brazil's modernizing project of the epoch. Roxo's case reveals that the language used by science communicators, although sometimes of difficult apprehension, was part of an strategy of acknowledgment of the medical authority for the diagnosis and treatment of the mental illnesses.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.