Madness under attack: contributions from Ignacio Martín-Baró on colonization, war and mental health for contemporary Brazil

Abstract

In view of the current multiplication of national enemies in Brazil, which cross gender, sexuality, race and class relations, in this text we approach a specific aspect of this generalized war: the war against the mad. With the objective of analyzing the recent return of strengthening confinement architectures in the field of mental health, demarcating relations between rationality and territory, this article is triggered from a questioning about the political space given to the mad and the madness, to the difference and to the pain, to the war against the mad and to the madness in war. As a trigger, it will be shared the work of Ignacio Martín-Baró and his criticisms of colonial psychologism, as well as the naturalization and pathologization of conditions and effects of capitalism. We can draw instigating parallels from our experience with Martín-Baró’s writings, elaborating a possible place of resistance for psychology in this battlefield.