The prelude to psychiatric reform in Brazil: the contradictions of the 1970s

Abstract

The article provides a historical reconstruction of the period leading up to what has become known as Brazil's Movement for Psychiatric Reform, which runs from the 1967 creation of the national social welfare system (INPS) to 1978, when the Mental Health Workers Movement gained prominence. Focusing on technical criteria influenced by the U.S. prevention model, our discussion examines the contradictions in Brazil's official mental health policy and also looks at the practice of financing and strengthening private psychiatric institutions, to the detriment of community action. Although most official documents from the 1970s contain proposals clearly aimed at community actions, what we observe is the crystallization of a model under which the government purchases psychiatric beds in private hospitals.