The Situation of Marxism in Brazil

Lessa, Sergio; Hallewell, Laurence

doi:10.1177/0094582x9802500108

Cited by 5 publications

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“…Several psychoanalytically trained therapists have committed themselves to changing what has often been criticized as an elitist and excessively introspective psychoanalytic tradition into a more popular and politicized form of clinical practice. Efforts to expand mental health services to a wider, more “popular” patient population by integrating psychiatry within preexisting school- and community-based initiatives have been met with enthusiasm by a wide range of professionals ( Duarte 1999 ; Lessa 1997 ; Maurer Lane and Sawaia 2008 ; Silvestre de Paula et al 2009 ). As some therapists argue, because much mental illness in Brazil is so clearly linked to socioeconomic inequities, therapy must not simply be sensitive to biographical, social, and economic determinants; it should be used as a tool for political emancipation ( Béhague 2004 ).…”

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confidence: 99%

Psychiatry and Politics in Pelotas, Brazil:

Béhague

2009

Med Anthropol Q

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The world-wide emergence of categories for diagnosing mental health problems in children and youth such as conduct disorder is often attributed to the globalization of a highly biomedical form of psychiatry. In Brazil, a small group of therapists are resisting biomedicalization by keeping psychodynamic traditions alive and aiming to transform psychotherapy into a resource for politicized youth empowerment. Nevertheless, clinical practices demonstrate an increased use of biomedical diagnoses and therapeutic routines. On the basis of fieldwork with therapists and teachers, and a nine-year-long ethnography of young people, this article explores the localized effects of these potentially contradictory developments. Results show that the growth of biomedical practices alongside politicized therapeutic approaches is not indicative of underlying ambiguities but has, rather, emerged from the purposefully equivocal nature of Brazilian social, medical, and professional life. The article uses this Brazilian case study to critically debate theories of medicalization in the anthropology of psychiatry.

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confidence: 99%