ABSTRACT
This study was realized with the objective to understand the social representations of madness and care for the inhabitants of a neighborhood that accommodates five therapeutic residences, located in a municipality in the southeast of Brazil. Interviews were conducted with inhabitants and workers of the neighborhood from an ethnographic perspective. Seven categories emerged from the thematic analysis, three in the context of social representations of madness and four related to the social representations of care. Two main tendencies were demonstrated: one about the classical ideas of madness as an illness and the care as treatment, the second indicated the existence of dialogue and exchange of affections between the participants of this study and the therapeutic residences dwellers, a fundamental aspect in the context of deinstitutionalization.
Keywords:
social representations; madness; care; therapeutic residences; ethnography