Loucos em cena: diálogos entre o conto O Alienista de Machado de Assis e as teorias psiquiátricas de Philippe Pinel

Abstract

This study aims to identify how the alienist ideas developed by Philippe Pinel in his Medical-Philosophical Treatise on Mental Alienation or Mania, first published in France in 1800, were received by Machado de Assis in The Alienist, published in 1881. Furthermore, it seeks to contextualize alienism in France and the contributions of Philippe Pinel; analyze Pinel’s theoretical foundations and practices presented in his Treatise; examine the relationships between alienism, power, and social control within the context of the institutionalization of madness in France and Brazil; identify the representations of madness, the alienist, and scientism in the short story The Alienist; investigate the connections between the assumptions of alienism and the elements present in Machado de Assis’s narrative; and discuss the limits and contradictions of the alienist therapeutic project in contemporary times. Pinel was considered responsible for practical innovations in hospitals for the mentally ill and was recognized as one of the founders of psychiatry in eighteenth-century France. The therapeutic practices developed by Pinel in France influenced the Brazilian context, particularly through the emergence of institutions such as the Dom Pedro II Hospice. Therefore, Machado de Assis, through satire and irony, reveals the set of political powers surrounded by scientific justifications, as well as the weaknesses of medical discourses concerning madness. The research was structured around the concepts of madness, alienism, moral treatment, and politics, based on the work of Murat (2012). The methodology employed involves bibliographical, documentary, and literary research through the analysis of articles, books, and paintings. The study revisits the process of political disputes surrounding madness. Throughout two chapters, it demonstrates how literature can contribute to and guide reflections on the historical past, especially when combined with other records and sources. The study found that the alienist theories formulated by Philippe Pinel were critically received by Machado de Assis through the satire and irony present in The Alienist, challenging confidence in medical treatments and in the prevailing conceptions of madness. Furthermore, the analysis of the short story in light of Pinel’s Treatise made it possible to establish connections between the formation of French psychiatry and its reception in the Brazilian context, encompassing various political, economic, and social aspects.