The Paths and missteps of an ethnographic encounter with madness

Brief notes of an experience in a psychosocial care center located in the interior of São Paulo

Abstract

According to the Italian ideals of the anti-asylum movement, deinstitutionalization goes far beyond the removal of patients from asylums and psychiatric hospitals. It is, above all, a movement of reintegration into social life and the creation of an alternative, as well as the deconstruction of a psychiatric logic that has been established. In Brazil, the transformations regarding the care of individuals in the post-Psychiatric Reform are undeniable. Thus, the first CAPS in the country dates back to 1989, in São Paulo, during the height of the agitation for the RPB and a at a moment of redemocratization after a period of dictatorship. It was established as a space for interdisciplinary work, with a team composed of various professionals and, above all, the appreciation of them roles – and also as a space where the effort for the horizontalization of treatment is visible. This article aims to outline the distinct experiences lived in this continuous movement in which this CAPS from the interior of São Paulo is situated. This study is based on a qualitative investigation with an ethnographic approach, supported by visits to the institution and the writing of the field diary. Between meetings and discussions, the possibility of understanding the multiple meanings of psychological suffering is established, and even more, the multiple ways of conducting treatment.