On the artistic production of the alienated: history of theories and practices of Brazilian alienism, 1852-1902

Abstract

The article deals with the presence of artistic manifestations of inmates of the Hospício de Pedro II, the first psychiatric institution in Latin America (1852-1902). The methodological framework chosen focused on the historicisation of the framing processes of mental illness, in order to demonstrate its consequences for the notion of the subject and the art he produces and in the process of circulation of this knowledge in Brazil. Derrida’s concept of archive fever was used to analyse the reasons why such manifestations and the therapies used based on them were ignored by local narratives about the artistic manifestations of individuals in asylums.