Abstract

FACCHINETTI, Cristiana  and  CUPELLO, Priscila Céspede. The process of diagnosing psychopatic women in the National Mental Hospital: between physiology and bad costums (1903-1930). Estud. pesqui. psicol. [online]. 2011, vol.11, n.2, pp.697-718. ISSN 1808-4281.

This paper is part of an ongoing research project on Brazilian psychiatrists’ and eugenicists’ discursive practices between 1903 and 1930 that investigates the construction of normality and abnormality categories for women. It discusses the gradual replacement of the diagnosis of hysteria by maniac-depressive psychosis in women's medical records of the main psychiatric hospital in Brazil’s (former) Federal District. The change indicates the dominance of German organicistic theories between the twenties and thirties. It then demonstrates that the nosographic change hasn’t made an effective difference, at the time, neither in the interpretation nor on the consequent medical conduct to the considered socially deviant behaviors. For the analysis there were used medical articles published in specialized journal as well as in large circulation newspapers in the city of Rio de Janeiro, besides clinical cases excerpted from the Clinical Books of Observations Pavilion of the National Hospital.

Keywords : History of Psychiatry; Brazil; Gender; Madness.

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