Madness, intellectual demotion of women and protagonism

A historical analysis from a case study

Abstract

This article seeks to give visibility and historical intelligibility to forms of intellectual demotion and ways of life experienced by a psychiatric patient admitted to the Psychiatric Hospital of Juquery between the 1940s and 1950s. Using her medical record, we can access part of her life experiences inside and outside the hospital. The patient in question has in common with others hospitalized there the fact of having elaborated works of art in the Painting Section of that Hospital, in addition to having her hospitalization marked by the indication of psychosurgery due to her “rebellious” behavior. In this sense, his case is quite representative of other hospitalization processes of female patients undergoing psychosurgery, the most radical psychiatric therapy of the time. Considering the production of works of art by this patient, who was even recognized at the Psychopathological Art Exhibition in Paris in 1950, a point of evidence for the disregard of her intellectual capacity rests on her artistic activity. This is because her indication for psychosurgery demonstrates the intentionality of her behavioral control through therapy to the detriment of her mental capacity, since the therapy involved risks of psychological and motor sequelae, in addition to the possibility of personality change. Through her medical record, we also recovered the patient's search for autonomy, recognition strategies inside and outside the hospital, in addition to forms of resistance against the intellectual demotion that the notion of mental pathology attributed to her.