REFORMA PSIQUIÁTRICA E O LOUCO INFRATOR: NOVAS IDÉIAS E VELHAS PRÁTICAS

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to investigate the social representations on insane offenders elaborated by mental health workers. We assume that these representations are not built in a social vacuum, but are generated within interpersonal and/or intergroup relations and have a dialectic relationship with the environment and social practices. On the other hand, we understand social representations as being conceived as a network of knowledge, where their contents are interwoven. Therefore, the social representations about the insane offenders shall be understood as one of the links to a more complex representational system concerning madness itself, social violence, aggressive behavior etc. To achieve this goal, workers from two institutions that attend insane offenders will be interviewed. We will initially interview workers from Center for Psychosocial Care (CAPS); the first of which is situated in a rural area (Brasília), and the second, a mental asylum judiciary inside a penitentiary (Psychiatric Wing). The comparison of the results between these two institutions will allow us to establish correlations between the environment, the representational content described above, and the professional practices related to the care provided to insane offenders. Our initial hypothesis was supported; is that despite the fact that public policies concord with the psychosocial paradigm, we still have the knowledge and experience of mental health workers anchored in biological paradigm.