Abstract

GOULART, Maria Stella Brandão. In the name of reason: When art makes history. Rev. bras. crescimento desenvolv. hum. [online]. 2010, vol.20, n.1, pp. 36-41. ISSN 0104-1282.

The article presents the documentary "Em nome da razão" (In the name of reason), directed by Helvécio Ratton, filmmaker born in Minas Gerais, produced by the "Grupo Novo de Cinema e Tv" (The New Group of Cinema e Tv) and by the Associação Mineira de Saúde Mental (Minas Gerais's Mental Health Association). The photography is by Diliny Campos and it was edited by José Tavares Barro. The text was written by the psychiatrist Antonio Simone. It shows the tragedy lived by the thousands of patients at the Hospital Colônia, in Barbacena, Minas Gerais, that reflected the national scenario around the year of 1979. It was an essential milestone of the fight for the political reform of mental health in Brazil and promoted discussions and mobilization of public opinion concerning the need of some urgent transformation. Helvécio Ratton's documentary caused a big crack in the symbolic system of the Brazilian psychiatric public institutions. The film promoted historical events that confronted the mental hospitais and defied the limits of psychiatric rationality.

Keywords : psychiatric reform; psychiatrics hospitais; deinstitutionalization; history.

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