Madness in Motion: Social Representation and Madness in the Written Press

Abstract

Based on the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform, this work aims to discuss possible transformations in the social representations of madness in a Brazilian printed newspaper. To this end, 1.385 media articles addressing the theme of madness published in electronic format from January 1978 to December 2015 were separately analyzed using three corpora with the support of IRAMUTEQ software, generating three dendrograms of different hierarchical classification. The results allow us to verify the changes and resistance movements of the social representations over time. Throughout the analyzed period, the several names attributed to the figure of the madman have undergone changes, with some categories having been softened more than others. This work highlights the social dynamics driving a change and the means through which it is incorporated, reorganized, and reframed without causing a rupture. From a methodological point of view, this research data call attention to the choices of descriptors and their consequences on the obtained results.

Keywords:
Social Representation; Madness; Brazilian Psychiatric Reform; Press; Nomination