As origens do alienismo no Brasil: dois artigos pioneiros sobre o Hospício de Pedro II

Abstract

O artigo discute dois trabalhos que, de forma pioneira, descreveram o funcionamento do Hospício de Pedro II, primeira instituição psiquiátrica do Brasil: L'hospice Pedro II et les Alienés au Brésil, de Phillipe-Marius Rey (1875); e Visite a L'sile de Pedro II a Rio de Janeiro, de François Jouin (1880). O contexto histórico de criação do hospício e seu funcionamento inicial são analisados. Sua construção é correlacionada à afirmação política do Segundo Reinado. Aspectos referentes à organização do alienismo no país e às características raciais da sociedade brasileira são abordados.

Francisco de Castro: Localizationism, intelligence and the frontal lobe

“…It is important to mention Nuno de Andrade, a prominent physician who was partially responsible for the implementation of the psychiatry chair in Brazilian medical schools. 13 In his critique of Castro's essay, Andrade refer to the works of Fritsch and Hitzig showing that he was up-to-date on the matter. However, Andrade was cautious not to fully embrace the doctrine of cortical localization, as some of the experiments seemed to him methodologically flawed.…”

Serviço Ambulatorial de Saúde Mental Infanto-Juvenil no Distrito Federal

“…Afastado do contexto europeu, de queda da hegemonia monárquica e religiosa, o Hospício de Pedro II nasce em um Império oficialmente católico, subordinado à Santa Casa de Misericórdia do Rio de Janeiro, administrado por seu provedor--geral e conduzido por freiras da Ordem de São Vicente de Paulo 1 .…”

João Carlos Teixeira Brandão, the first Brazilian professor of Psychiatry

“…The following year, the Rio de Janeiro Mercy Hospital (Santa Casa de Misericórdia) established a commission, of which Teixeira Brandão was a member, to investigate the causes for the rise in deaths of patients in the Dom Pedro II Asylum. Teixeira Brandão's title as specialist, further legitimized by his Chair in Clinical Psychiatry at the School of Medicine, probably encouraged the support his critiques received from the Baron of Cotegipe and the Diário Official, the newspaper that was considered the official communications vehicle of the monarchy 6,7 .…”

“…In 1892, Teixeira Brandão published his Instructions for the Internal Services of the National Asylum for the Alienated, to organize the hospital's activities. The fact that the asylum was now under federal jurisdiction increased the number of admissions, as everyone requiring specialized care was sent there, especially individuals who might disturb the peace, thus making Psychiatry a tool for social control in late 19 thcentury Brazilian society 7 .…”