WHEN RACE COMES INTO FOCUS

PSYCHIATRIC REFORM AND THE LIMITS OF ANTI-ASYLUM INSTITUTIONALIZATION IN BRAZIL

Abstract

Based on a documentary analysis of the National Mental Health Conferences (1987–2010) and the National Policy for Comprehensive Health of the Black Population (2009, 2017), this study demonstrates that the incorporation of race as an institutional category does not occur simultaneously with the consolidation of the reform, but through historically situated processes strained by political disputes. Objective: To analyze the relationship between psychiatric reform and coloniality in Brazil. Methodology: Mixed-methods analysis (quantitative and qualitative) of reports from the National Mental Health Conferences and the National Policy for Comprehensive Health of the Black Population, thematically coded using MAXQDA. Frequencies, proportions, correlations (Spearman), and prevalence indices between the social and racial axes were analyzed, articulated with a discursive analysis of visibility regimes. Results and discussion: A shift from the predominance of the social axis to the racial axis was found. Conclusion: The incorporation of this axis remains marked by asymmetry between knowledge and implementation, reflecting structural limitations in the intelligibility regimes of public policies in mental health.

Keywords: Psychiatric Reform; Mental Health; Social; Racial; Public Policies.