Estudios Locos Latinoamericanos: marcos conceptuales y agenda de investigación / Estudos loucos da América Latina: marcos conceituais e agenda de investigação / Latin-American Mad Studies: Conceptual Frameworks and Research Agenda

Resumen El artículo analiza la emergencia de los Estudios Locos como tradición investigativa que propone teorías críticas y metodologías alternativas en la producción de saberes desde las personas que han sido etiquetadas con diagnósticos psiquiátricos. Para los Estudios Locos, los significados en torno a la locura expresan la relación de fuerzas y las formas de opresión que constituyen el campo de la salud mental, por lo tanto, enfatizan el carácter político de las investigaciones que se desarrollan en este ámbito y sostienen un cuestionamiento a la pretensión de objetividad y neutralidad del modelo biomédico. En este marco, mediante una revisión de la literatura académica y la netnografía como método de investigación, se describe el creciente protagonismo de las comunidades que han recibido atención de salud mental en América Latina para expresar sus narrativas en la esfera pública, situándose como agentes de conocimientos y actores políticos. En torno a estas nuevas gramáticas, los Estudios Locos Latinoamericanos se constituyen como una perspectiva de investigación hacia la configuración de otros modos de habitar la locura y articular sus luchas de emancipación social en el escenario regional contemporáneo.

Resumo Este artigo analisa a emergência dos Estudos loucos como uma tradição investigativa que propõe teorias críticas e metodologias alternativas para a produção do conhecimento de pessoas que foram rotuladas com diagnósticos psiquiátricos. Para Estudos loucos, os significados em torno da loucura expressam a relação de forças e as formas de opressão que constituem o campo da saúde mental, portanto, enfatizam o caráter político das pesquisas que se desenvolvem neste campo e sustentam um questionamento da reivindicação de objetividade e neutralidade do modelo biomédico. Nesse quadro, por meio de uma revisão da literatura acadêmica e da netnografia como método de pesquisa, descreve-se o crescente papel das comunidades que receberam atenção em saúde mental na América Latina para elaborar suas experiências no campo acadêmico e expressar suas narrativas em público. esfera, posicionando-se como agentes do conhecimento e atores políticos. Em torno dessas novas gramáticas, propõe-se o surgimento dos Estudos loucos da América Latina como disciplina emergente na configuração de outras formas de habitar a loucura e articular suas lutas pela emancipação social no cenário regional contemporâneo.

Abstract This article analyzes the emergence of Mad Studies as an investigative tradition that proposes critical theories and alternative methodologies in the production of knowledge from people who have been labeled with psychiatric diagnoses. For Mad Studies, the meanings around Madness express the relationship of forces and the forms of oppression that constitute the field of mental health, therefore, they emphasize the political nature of the research that is developed in this field and sustain a questioning of the claim of objectivity and neutrality of the biomedical model. In this framework, through a review of the academic literature and netnography as a research method, the growing role of the communities that have received mental health care in Latin America to express their narratives in the public sphere is described, positioning themselves as agents of knowledge and political actors. Around these new grammars, Latin American Mad Studies are constituted as a research perspective towards the configuration of other ways of inhabiting madness and articulating their struggles for social emancipation in the contemporary regional scenario.

The Snake Pit: Mixing Marx with Freud in Hollywood.

In 1948, the motion picture The Snake Pit was released to popular and critical acclaim. Directed by Anatole Litvak, the film told of the mental illness and recovery of one patient, who survived overcrowding and understaffing and was treated by a neo-Freudian psychiatrist known as Dr. Kik. It was based on a novel of the same title by Mary Jane Ward, who had been treated at Rockland State Hospital in New York. Building upon exposés of horrid hospital conditions in the press, The Snake Pit helped motivate reforms in the treatment of the mentally ill. Via unpublished correspondence and drafts of the film's screenplay, this article explores the populist and antifascist themes in The Snake Pit, which came from the director, screenwriters, and the politics of the immediate post-WWII era. It also describes the case history of Mary Jane Ward and her treatment by Gerard Chrzanowski, the real "Dr. Kik." (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Margiad Evans (1909-1958): A writer's epileptic experiences and their reflections in her work.

Margiad Evans, in the period 1930-1950, an acclaimed English writer, developed convulsive seizures at age 41 and died at age 50 from the tumor that had caused them. In her book "A Ray of Darkness", she describes in profound analytic detail her seizure experiences, especially the isolated auras that had preceded her first convulsion by many years. Their ultimate strangeness echoed a long-standing fascination by the indescribable, which is a recurrent theme in her literary work. Another aspect of her poetry, a focus on the experience of the moment that cannot be retained is likewise reminiscent of the volatility of her aura experiences. Of three texts that are presently being published posthumously, one ("The Nightingale Silenced") is a fragmentary continuation of her epileptic experience. She considered that she still had a lot to describe, contributing the inside of the "outside inside story" of epilepsy, clues on which neurology could work to obtain a deeper understanding. To have a focal motor seizure feels like being invaded by an alien force. An urge to run and heautoscopy are other recorded symptoms. Evans documents the experience of a long-lasting, predominantly nonconvulsive status epilepticus merging into aura continua where her earlier aura experiences appear transformed into a quasipsychotic state. But even in the account of "this appalling, this hellish condition", she is careful to maintain her high literary standards. Together, the two reports on her disease seem to represent the only comprehensive inside case history of epilepsy, a most valuable legacy.

Epilepsy, literature and linguistics: spotlighting subjective symptoms.

Literature can offer a wealth of information about epilepsy: from complex narratives to children's picture books, it can help broaden people's understanding, show what it is like to live with epilepsy and provide a medium to which people with epilepsy (PWE) can relate. The latter being particularly important in such cases where seizure experiences are highly subjective, such as those associated with 'focal seizures', a common seizure type, which are known for their variable and hard-to-describe symptoms, causing complications with diagnosis as many of the symptoms overlap with those of other psychological health conditions.Literature, however, has more to offer than acting as a source for demystifying epilepsy. On a disciplinary level, literature is surrounded by different frameworks for linguistic analysis which, importantly, are also applicable to real-life discourse. In particular, the well-established discipline, cognitive stylistics, provides ample theory for analysing the different facets of literature, from narratological and storyworld level, to the intricacies of characterisation revealing the structure behind the presentation of fictional characters' experiences, attitudes and personalities. Such methods have the potential to transform and decode complex, subjective experiences into manageable pieces of information. This, then, holds great potential for shedding light on the experiences of real-life seizure narratives to the extent that the identified seizure's linguistic 'profiles' can be used to aid real-life situations. Therefore, the present study calls to attention the potential evoked through the convergence between literature, linguistic analysis, fictional characters, PWE and seizure narratives. Extrapolating the qualities of these converging strands can enrich our understanding of the seizure experience, as well as bring to awareness the areas of risk that surround aspects of the diagnosis process.

Humanização em saúde e reforma psiquiátrica: discussão da obra O Alienista entre pessoas com quadro psiquiátrico grave / Humanization in health and psychiatric reform: discussion of The Alienist among people with severe psychiatric illness

Resumo O artigo apresenta os resultados de uma investigação realizada junto a pessoas com quadro psiquiátrico grave de um grupo psicoterapêutico. Partindo da metodologia do Laboratório de Humanidades (LabHum), foram realizados 11 encontros para a discussão da obra O Alienista. Das 22 pessoas que participaram da dinâmica, 14 eram usuários em sofrimento mental. Posteriormente, foram realizadas seis entrevistas de História Oral de Vida, analisadas pela Imersão/Cristalização, técnica inspirada na Fenomenologia Hermenêutica. Os eixos temáticos encontrados foram loucura, estigma, formas de tratamento, ciência, poder e o LabHum. A experiência do LabHum mostrou que este é um espaço com efeito terapêutico, promovendo entre os participantes uma maior compreensão de suas histórias de vida e do lugar que ocupam na sociedade, através da experiência do difuso e do indeterminado, algo que a literatura proporciona. O estudo apontou para a pertinência do LabHum enquanto uma possibilidade terapêutica que é capaz de contribuir e agregar com as formas existentes de tratamento, em consonância com valores e diretrizes da Reforma Psiquiátrica.

Abstract The article presents the results of an investigation conducted with people with severe psychiatric condition in a psychotherapeutic group. Based on the methodology of the Humanities Laboratory (LabHum), 11 meetings were held to discuss the novel The Alienist. Of the 22 people who participated in the dynamic, 14 were users in mental distress. Subsequently, six interviews of Oral History of Life were conducted, analyzed by Immersion / Crystallization, technique inspired by Hermeneutic Phenomenology. The thematic axes found were madness, stigma, forms of treatment, science, power and the "LabHum". LabHum's experience has shown that this is a space with therapeutic effect, promoting among participants a greater understanding of their life stories and their place in society through the experience of diffuse and undetermined, something that literature provides. The study pointed to the relevance of LabHum as a therapeutic possibility that is able to contribute and aggregate with existing forms of treatment, in line with values and guidelines of the Psychiatric Reform.

Perversão ou perversidade? Genealogia de um debate médico-jurídico / Perversion or perversity? Genealogy of a medical-legal debate

Resumo O artigo analisa as condições de formação do conceito psiquiátrico de "perversão" e mais especificamente a maneira como, a partir dos anos 1820, se constrói uma oposição fundamental e estruturante entre "perversão" e "perversidade" que se evidencia tanto no campo jurídico como no médico-legal. Compreender esse jogo de oposição e de poder entre ambos os conceitos permite entender alguns conflitos profissionais entre médicos e juristas, mas também algumas disputas políticas.

Abstract The article analyzes the conditions of formation of the psychiatric concept of "perversion" and, more specifically, the way in which, from the 1820s, a fundamental structuring opposition between "perversion" and "perversity" in juridical and medical-legal fields was constructed. Understanding this game of opposition and power between both concepts allows assimilating some professional conflicts between doctors and jurists, as well as some political disputes.

Fiction-reading for good or ill: eating disorders, interpretation and the case for creative bibliotherapy research.

Compared with self-help bibliotherapy, little is known about the efficacy of creative bibliotherapy or the mechanisms of its possible efficacy for eating disorders or any other mental health condition. It is clear, however, that fiction is widely used informally as a therapeutic or antitherapeutic tool and that it has considerable potential in both directions, with a possibly significant distinction between the effects of reading fiction about eating disorders (which may-contrary to theoretical predictions-be broadly negative in effect) or one's preferred genre of other fiction (which may be broadly positive). Research on creative bibliotherapy, especially systematic experimental research, is lacking and requires a medical humanities approach, drawing on knowledge and methods from psychology and cognitive literary studies as well as clinical disciplines to expand our understanding of how the dynamic processes of interpretation mediate between textual structures and characteristics of mental health and illness.

When Fathering Fails: Violence, Narcissism, and the Father Function in Ancient Tales and Clinical Analysis.

Manifestations of failures in both symbolic and actual flesh-and-blood fathering reveal the inescapable role played by the father's unconscious transmissions in the ever present triadic matrix. Perelberg's crucial distinction between the murdered narcissistic father and the dead symbolic father suggests the problematic internalizations that fail to uphold the paternal law required for oedipal resolution. Three father-child narratives derived from classical literature and mythology are presented in order to elucidate significant unconscious paternal fantasies pertaining to lethal rivalry and neglect of the child's otherness. These narratives suggest how the father's insufficient management of rivalrous, envious, and murderously aggressive impulses-as well as narcissistic needs that fail to take into account the child's alterity-combine with the child's intrapsychic propensities to constrict triangular space and restrict development. Consequently, unavoidable father-child rivalries, absences, neglect, and desires often make it vital to recover the "missing" paternal function in analytic space. A clinical example illustrates the impact of this absence on the analyst's countertransference.

Early intervention for incipient insanity: early notions from the 19th century English literature.

AIM: Early intervention programmes in mental illnesses started to bloom in the 1990s, and many programmes have been established worldwide during the past twenty years. However, the concept of early intervention has emerged during the 19th century but it did not make much impact on practice. The aim of this review is to identify the difficulties appeared during that period of time which could provide insight into the modern development of early intervention initiatives. METHODS: A narrative review which focused on English literature about early intervention for insanity during the 19th century was undertaken. RESULTS: Clinicians during the 19th century recognized that treatment would be the most effective at the early stage of the mental illness and they had emphasized the importance of early intervention. However, because of a number of factors, such as the limited roles of asylums, lack of knowledge about mental disorder and the lack of effective treatment, the idea of early intervention did not make impact in clinical service during that period of time. CONCLUSION: During the past two hundred years, understanding towards mental illness has advanced and more effective treatments, such as the use of anti-psychotic medications, have been developed. Reflecting on the past experience and difficulties might shed light on the development of today early intervention in mental disorder.