Loucura e Obsessão: entre psiquiatria e espiritismo no Sanatório Espírita de Uberaba-MG (1933-1970)

Abstract

After a decade of law that humanizes the psychiatric treatment, forcing institutions not let those who are locked mental disorders, the discussion of this issue has yet found a rich field of discussion. This study aims to investigate the process of institutionalization of madness in Uberaba-MG by an institution spiritualist. For fans of the doctrine Kardecist mental illness is caused by an obsession, ie the influence of one or more spirits in the flesh, he who has the disorder. The novelty of this research is the fact that the psychiatrist was spiritualist and adopt, according to Kardecists advocate, an alternative therapy. Ignatius Ferreira (1904-1988), who resided in the city of Tuticorin, formed in 1930 from the Faculty of Medicine of Rio de Janeiro, worked his entire medical career in this institution and its history was marked by conflicts between Catholic officials and the psychiatric community. Studying an institution spiritualist who stood out in assistance to people with mental disorders since the early 1930s, having a strong linkage spirit enables us to reflect on the local welfare practices, discourses produced that functioned as justifications for the institutionalization of that considered \" abnormal \"and fundamentally rethink the process of legitimation of religion Kardecist. The Spiritist Sanatorium Uberaba was supported by the community, by means of donations collected by militant spirit. Its effectiveness shows the connivance of this care project with the interests of the city. The practice of charity, embodied in the management of asylum home, helped to promote a sense, spiritualism in the city and region. The investigation of the trajectory of Spiritist Sanatorium Uberaba to suggest the confluence of the strands of thought in Brazil, linking them with the representations of the symbolic universe of supporters Kardecists practices associated with the treatment of madness in order to allude to the historical process, outlined by social groups, causing many injustices and excesses with mental disorders.