UR Scholarship Repository

Title

[Introduction to] Reasoning Against Madness: Psychiatry and the State in Rio de Janeiro, 1830-1944

Authors

Manuella Meyer, University of RichmondFollow

Files

Description

Reasoning against Madness: Psychiatry and the State in Rio de Janeiro, 1830-1944 examines the emergence of Brazilian psychiatry, looking at how its practitioners fashioned themselves as the key architects in the project of national regeneration. The book's narrative involves a cast of varied characters in an unstable context: psychiatrists, Catholic representatives, spiritist leaders, state officials, and the mentally ill, all caught in the shifting landscape of modern state formation. Manuella Meyer investigates the key junctures at which psychiatrists sought to establish their authority and the ways in which their adversaries challenged this authority. These moments serve as productive points from which to explore the moral and political economies of mental health, demonstrating how sociopolitical negotiations shape psychiatric professionalization. Meyer argues that the gradual adoption of punitive configurations of insanity helped sanction during a time of rapid socioeconomic, political, and cultural transformation.

ISBN

9781580465786

Publication Date

2017

Publisher

University of Rochester Press

City

Rochester

Keywords

emergence, Brazilian psychiatry, political economy, Rio de Janeiro, nineteenth century, twentieth century

School

School of Arts and Sciences

Department

History

Disciplines

History

Comments

Read the introduction to the book by clicking the Download button above.

Recommended Citation

Meyer, Manuella. Reasoning Against Madness: Psychiatry and the State in Rio de Janeiro, 1830-1944. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2017.