ABSTRACT
The article examines a documentation about a Blessed, Sister Germana Maria da Purificação (1782-1853), who presente ecstatic manifestations in a chapel named Capela de Nossa Senhora da Piedade da Serra, in Caeté, Minas Gerais. A diagnosis for this case was accomplished by two surgeons, Antônio Pedro de Sousa and Manuel Quintão da Silva, which supported the idea that the woman was a victim of a supernatural phenomenon. This interpretation was rejected by the doctor Antônio Gonçalves Gomide (1770-1835), graduated in Europe, who published his analysis in Analytical Impugnation (...) (1814). This document allows us to examine the universe of medicine from the beginning of the 19th century in Brazil and it makes clear the rivalry among doctors and surgeons. The doctor, guided by the principles of illustrated science, and based on medicine studies, relied on Philippe Pinel’s work (1745-1826) and others alienists. Analyzing the pathological manifestations of the Blessed as a nervous disease, Gomide produced what can be considered the first document about alienism in Brazil. The doctor left space for the debate on this modern medical specialty in the country. This perception points at a re-reading of the historiography about mental illness, demonstrating that the scientific knowledge about alienation has been upgraded in Brazil since the 1810s.
Keywords:
Physicians and surgeons; alienation; the 19th century; Minas Gerais; Brazil; Antônio Gomide (1770-1835)