Mental health treatment: documental study of federal laws, from Brazil’s emergence until 1934

Abstract

Mental health treatment means and stigmas assigned to the mental disorders bearers are subject matters for analysis and discussion in the healthcare area. Aiming to deeply study in this matter, a documental research has been conducted with the purpose of analyzing treatment means set forth in the federal laws related to mental health in Brazil, from its discovery until 1934. Sixteen Decrees were accessed, forming the primary sources for this study, after survey of Paraná State Public Library’s Laws collection as well as of Health Ministry’s website. Sources were discussed according to three time axis applied to Brazil’s history: Colonial Brazil, Imperial Brazil and Republican Brazil: starting in 1889. The findings ascertain that the studied period was formed by series of treatments evidenced by isolation, repressive therapies which had a barbarian approach towards the mentally disordered individual.

Descriptors: Legislation; Mental Health; Psychiatry.