History of Psychology in Brazil

The different meanings of degeneration (1903-1930)

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9745246
AutoresAlexandre De Carvalho Castro (0000-0002-8140-3738, Federal Center for Technological Education Celso Suckow da Fonseca), Cristiana Facchinetti (0000-0003-4879-0307, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz)
Año2022
Volumen56
Número2
Páginase1691
Fecha de publicación2022-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaRevista Interamericana de Psicología/Interamerican Journal of Psychology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0034-9690 • E-ISSN: 2329-4795
EditorialSociedad Interamericana de Psicologia (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.30849/ripijp.v56i2.1691
OpenAlexW4312410720
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas10

The purpose of this article is to analyze the records related to the diagnosis of degeneration (concept derived from Traité des dégénérescences, by Bénedict-Augustin Morel, published in 1857), based on documents from institutions for the insane according to the Assistência aos Alienados no Brasil program (Brazilian Assistance to Individuals with Mental Illnesses). The aim of this work, with a theoretical framework, is to assess interpretative asymmetries related to theories of degeneration at the beginning of the 20th century. Emphasis is given to the particularities of interpretation of the theory of degeneration in the Brazil, which may be attributed to the policies introduced by the newly settled Republic regarding racial mixing in the local society as a result of the trafficking of enslaved Africans before the abolition of slavery (1888). Intellectuals started to explain the Brazilian reality through race, which often led to the diagnosis of people’s degeneration of psychophysiological nature. However, according to a diachronic perspective, the term “degeneration” has had different meanings, mainly within the period covered by this article, during which Juliano Moreira, a doctor with black and white ancestry and a Kraepelin scholar, occupied the role of director of the Hospício Nacional de Alienados (National Institute for Individuals with Mental Illnesses), from 1903 to 1930

Aesthetics · Art · Degeneration (medical) · Interpretation (philosophy) · Linguistics · Pathology · Period (music) · Perspective (graphical) · Race (biology) · Social science · Sociology · Trait · White (mutation) · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · Gender Studies · History of Medicine and Tropical Health · Medicine · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychology and Mental Health