Relatórios do Asilo São João de Deus: edição e estudos

Abstract

The edition of texts from past times allows researchers and the non-specialized public to have access to information and details about historical facts, which are contained in the documents. In this dissertation, we present the facsimile and semidiplomatic editions of eight reports selected from the Livro de Ofícios Diverse do Asilo São João de Deus (1876-1884), a codex handwritten in cursive from the 19th century that brings together documents that testify to the communication between the aforementioned Asilo and the Santa Casa de Misericórdia da Bahia, in the period between 1876 and 1884. Codicological, paleographic and diplomatic studies on the same corpus accompany the editions, in addition to a thematic glossary, guided by the Communicative Theory of Terminology, in which the terms related to the existing professions in the asylum were described, as well as the mental illnesses that affected the asylum seekers, as registered in the corpus. The edited documents inform about the decisions taken at Asilo São João de Deus and describe, in detail, the conditions of the physical structure of the institution, as well as the health situation of patients and employees. The reports list the main mental illnesses that led to the patients' hospitalization, as well as other illnesses that affected them due to the precarious structural and health conditions of the institution. In this sense, the research contributes to a greater knowledge about the beginnings of psychiatry in Bahia, showing other aspects of issues related to public health that affected the province of Bahia during the second reign, under the government of D. Pedro II, a reality of which there are still few sources of studies, since the records in rare and incomplete handwritten documentation are not always accessible to those interested in the subject. In order to approach the corpus and develop the research, an interdisciplinary theoretical framework was used, which included, among others, Philology, Historical Linguistics, Paleography, Codicology, Cultural History and Terminology. The results made it possible to establish the profile of the institution and the inmates, as well as an overview of the characteristics and treatment of mental illness and other recurrent illnesses in the institution during the period. It was observed that the various possibilities of mental illness were not yet well understood and that the treatments performed were not yet based on scientific studies. The biggest concern was, of course, to remove from the streets individuals who did not fit the expected profile of mental health, those who presented hallucinations, and even destitute individuals who roamed, in a street situation, like many freedmen, victims of neglect political and social.