A influência da anatomia patológica na construção do conhecimento alienista na Corte Imperial – o caso da paralisia geral progressiva (1868-1882)

Abstract

This research note discusses the impact of anatomopathology on the development of psychiatric knowledge in Rio de Janeiro between 1868 and 1882. Through the analysis of medical dissertations and scientific articles about general paralysis of the insane (GPI) I argue that the acceptance of this disease category, considered nowadays a type of neurosyphilis, played an important role in the process through which alienist expertise became psychiatric knowledge. Since it had been significantly oriented by concepts inherited from the terrain of anatomopathology, the GPI framing process allowed the alienist cohort to incorporate concepts and paradigms which were considered ‘more scientific’ by general medicine during this period. Thus, the way GPI was described and developed as a disease entity doubtless favoured the process through which alienists professionalized and gained prestige in Rio de Janeiro.