The article addresses the penetration of German psychiatric science in early twentieth-century Brazil. More specifically, it explores how the theory and practices of Emil Kraepelin were absorbed by both Juliano Moreira, director of the National Hospital for the Insane (Hospício Nacional de Alienados) and of the agency for Assistance to the Insane (Assistência a Alienados) in the Federal District (Rio de Janeiro), and also by the circle of physicians with close ties to Moreira from 1903 to 1933. It discusses the ways in which Kraepelin's work was adopted, taking into account the day's medical-mental repertoire, the political and scientific context, and the controversies within the Brazilian psychiatric field. Lastly, the study analyzes these choices based on the prevailing relations between Brazilian and German psychiatry back then.
history; psychiatry; Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926); Brazil; Germany