XVII Congress of the Brazilian Studies Association

Nise da Silveira – “the innumerable states of being” Democratizing impulses in psychiatry and the arts

• In Event: Women artists in Brazil - Oscillating between democracy and dictatorship?

Abstract

Born into the male-dominated society of Brazil, the only woman among 158 graduates at Bahian School of Medicine in 1926, imprisoned for her tendency to Marxism, in 1936, followed by a withdrawal of her work permit until 1944, and surveilled over three decades by the upcoming dictatorial regime, Nise da Silveira (1905-1999) was all too familiar with being repressed for being, thinking, and experiencing differently than dictated by the official system. Marked by these experiences, the revolutionary psychiatrist became a life-long advocate for the human factor and a truly democratic society in which “the innumerable states of being” would be accepted.
In 1944, when she was allowed to resume her work at the psychiatry Pedro II in the Rio de Janeiro district Engenho de Dentro, she opposed treatments common at the time, such as electroshock and lobotomy, with alternative methods influenced by Jung’s theories and based on emotions. She founded the Occupational Therapy and Rehabilitation Division, including a painting studio, of which, in 1952, the Museu das Imagens do Inconsciente would emerge.
This paper provides a general introduction to the life and work of Nise da Silveira, focusing on her pioneering role in Brazilian psychiatric reform, which would come decades later. Her approach to the art of psychiatric patients, the perspective of the psychiatrist, mainly interested in the therapeutic and analytical value, is complemented by Mário Pedrosa’s approach, the perspective of the art critic, mainly interested in the aesthetic value of these works. Both approaches, distinct but converging, activated democratizing impulses in psychiatry and the arts that still reverberate in today’s practices.

Author

• Sarah Poppel, Independent