REASONING AGAINST Madness Psychiatry and the State in Rio De Janeiro, 1830–1944
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REASONING AGAINST Madness Psychiatry and the State in Rio de Janeiro, 1830–1944 MANUELLA MEYER Reasoning against Madness MMeyer.inddeyer.indd i 55/15/2017/15/2017 55:44:26:44:26 PPMM Rochester Studies in Medical History Senior Editor: Theodore M. Brown Professor of History and Preventive Medicine University of Rochester Additional Titles of Interest Infections, Chronic Disease, and the Epidemiological Transition: A New Perspective Alexander Mercer Save the Babies: American Public Health Reform and the Prevention of Infant Mortality, 1850–1929 Richard A. Meckel Intrusive Interventions: Public Health, Domestic Space, and Infectious Disease Surveillance in England, 1840–1914 Graham Mooney The Antivaccine Heresy: “Jacobson v. Massachusetts” and the Troubled History of Compulsory Vaccination in the United States Karen L. Walloch Healthy Boundaries: Property, Law, and Public Health in England and Wales, 1815–1872 James G. 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MMeyer.inddeyer.indd iiii 55/15/2017/15/2017 55:46:52:46:52 PPMM Reasoning against Madness Psychiatry and the State in Rio de Janeiro, 1830–1944 Manuella Meyer MMeyer.inddeyer.indd iiiiii 55/15/2017/15/2017 55:46:52:46:52 PPMM The University of Rochester Press gratefully acknowledges generous support from the University of Richmond. Copyright © 2017 by Manuella Meyer All rights reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation, no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded, or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. First published 2017 University of Rochester Press 668 Mt. Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620, USA www.urpress.com and Boydell & Brewer Limited PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK www.boydellandbrewer.com ISBN-13: 978-1-58046-578-6 ISSN: 1526-2715 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Meyer, Manuella, author. Title: Reasoning against madness : psychiatry and the state in Rio de Janeiro, 1830–1944 / Manuella Meyer. Description: Rochester, NY : University of Rochester Press, 2017. | Series: Rochester studies in medical history, ISSN 1526-2715 ; v. 41 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017014092 | ISBN 9781580465786 (hardcover : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Psychiatry—Brazil—Rio de Janeiro—History—19th century. | Psychiatry—Brazil—Rio de Janeiro—History—20th century. Classification: LCC RC451.B62 R657 2017 | DDC 362.1968900981/53—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017014092 A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. This publication is printed on acid-free paper. Printed in the United States of America. MMeyer.inddeyer.indd iivv 55/15/2017/15/2017 55:46:54:46:54 PPMM In Loving Memory of Reynold Meyer MMeyer.inddeyer.indd v 55/15/2017/15/2017 55:46:54:46:54 PPMM MMeyer.inddeyer.indd vvii 55/15/2017/15/2017 55:46:54:46:54 PPMM Contents Acknowledgments ix Note on Brazilian Orthography and Terminology xiii Introduction 1 1 Sanity in the South Atlantic: The Myth of Philippe Pinel and the Asylum Campaign Movement, 1830–52 16 2 “Of Grand Intentions” and “Opaque Structures”: The Fight for Psychiatric Management of the Hospício Pedro II during Brazil’s Second Empire, 1852–90 41 3 The Government of Psychiatry: The National Insane Asylum’s Interior Lives, 1890–94 67 4 “The Service of Disinterested Men”: Psychiatrists under State and Civil Scrutiny, 1894–1903 93 5 Breaking Out of the Asylum: Rio de Janeiro’s Mental Hygiene Movement, 1903–37 112 6 Mad Spirits of Progress, 1927–44 145 Conclusion 176 Notes 181 Bibliography 221 Index 241 MMeyer.inddeyer.indd vviiii 55/15/2017/15/2017 55:46:54:46:54 PPMM MMeyer.inddeyer.indd vviiiiii 55/15/2017/15/2017 55:46:54:46:54 PPMM Acknowledgments It is a great pleasure to acknowledge the many people who have supported me throughout this project. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Stuart B. Schwartz, Gilbert M. Joseph, Alondra K. Nelson, and John Harley Warner, my advisers at Yale University. They’ve guided my work wisely and gener- ously while inspiring me through their writing and teaching. In recent years, my University of Richmond colleagues David Brandenberger, Joanna Drell, John Gordon, Robert Kenzer, Tze Loo, David Routt, Nicole Sackley, Carol L. Summers, John Treadway, Sydney Watts, Hugh West, Yücel Yanikdağ, and Eric Yellin have provided me with an intel- lectually enriching and nurturing environment. Deborah Govoruhk, the most thoughtful and supportive department administrative assistant one could ever hope for, deserves special mention. She provided me with end- less technical support, useful advice, and kindness. The staffs of libraries and archives in the United States and Brazil guided me through the challenges of the research process. In the United States, I would like to thank César Rodriguez at Yale and the staff of the Hispanic Division at the Library of Congress. In addition, Mary Lou Reker, Jason Steinhauer, and Carolyn Brown at the John W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress, along with Jeannine Keefer, visual resource librarian at the University of Richmond, provided critical support and encouragement dur- ing the last stage of research. Individuals too numerous to list assisted me in my research in Brazil, including the amazing staff of the Arquivo Nacional, the Arquivo Geral da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro, the Biblioteca Nacional, and the Arquivo Público do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. The staff at Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) and the Academia Nacional de Medicina proved indispensable to the project. Moreover, they always welcomed me warmly and enthusiastically. Cátia Mathias, the head librarian at the Psychiatry Institute of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and Cristiana Facchinetti, scholar extraordi- naire of the history of Brazilian psychiatry, were also invaluable to this proj- ect. I am very grateful for their help. My research would not have been possible without support from the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, Fulbright-Hayes Fellowship, Yale University Graduate MMeyer.inddeyer.indd iixx 55/15/2017/15/2017 55:46:54:46:54 PPMM x • acknowledgments School, Yale Council on International and Area Studies, Yale Department of History Mellon Research Grant, the Yale Latin American Studies Mellon Fund, and the Ann Plato Fellowship program at Trinity College. The David K. Larson Fellowship in Health and Spirituality through the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress and the Faculty Research Committee at the University of Richmond funded my fi nal forays into the archive. En route to becoming a part of this volume, an earlier version of chapter 1 appeared as “Sanity in the South Atlantic: The Mythos of Philippe Pinel and the Asylum Movement in Nineteenth-Century Rio de Janeiro,” Atlanic Studies 7, no. 4 (2010): 473–92. An earlier version of chapter 2 appeared as “‘Of Grand Intentions’ and ‘Opaque Structures’: Managing the Hospício Pedro II during Brazil’s Second Empire (1852–90),” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 89, no. 4 (Winter 2015): 733–60, © 2015 by the Johns Hopkins University Press. I wish to thank the publishers of these works for their kind permission to reprint. Ted Brown, series editor of the Rochester Studies in Medical History, and the anonymous readers vastly improved this book with their many insightful suggestions. A particular note of thanks to Ted for believing in this project and patiently teaching this novice author about the process of producing a book. Sonia Kane and Ryan Peterson at the University of Rochester Press shepherded this book through its various stages. Friends have provided deep support over the years and across conti- nents. I owe my most enthusiastic thanks for solidarity, friendship, and intellectual support to Louise Walker, Ryan D. Crewe, Amy Chazkel, Brandi Hughes, Alison Bruey, Jay Driskell, Emmanuel Raymundo, Martine Jean, Kari Zimmerman, Melissa Stuckey, Emily Musil, Vijay Prashad, Okezi Otovo, Colin Jones, Marc Hertzman, Sonia Song-Ha Lee, and Tara Tappert. As I type out the letters of your names, I picture conversations over coffee, walks to restaurants, chats in offi ce hallways, and email exchanges offering pro- ductive criticism on a chapter draft or advice on book preparation. I hope that you each read between the lines your important individual contribu- tions to this book. The idea of this book most likely began when I was fi ve years old in Port- au-Prince, Haiti. My mentally ill uncle Raynold and I talked to each other for hours on end. While many failed to fully comprehend my most reliable and dear confi dante, he was always intelligible to me. In more ways than one, this project begins and ends with him. Bearing witness to the ways in which my grandmother and father cared for him left an indelible imprint on my mind about resilience, courage, and love. Both my mother and father have given me so many things for which I am grateful, especially their insis- tence that I pursue my passions and their unwavering support. I would also like to acknowledge my supportive siblings, Natacha and Hans Karl, along with my in-laws on all sides of the family. MMeyer.inddeyer.indd x 55/15/2017/15/2017 55:46:54:46:54 PPMM acknowledgments • xi Last but certainly not least, I would like to thank my son, Miles, and my husband, Will Machin.