Based on the experience of Hermelino Lopes Rodrigues in consolidating the field of psychiatry in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, in the 1920s, this article describes and analyzes the main difficulties he faced in his project as director of the Raul Soares Institute. The article also discusses Juliano Moreira's influence as the main interlocutor of Lopes Rodrigues by analyzing some of the letters exchanged between the two psychiatrists. The importance that these unpublished letters have in reconstructing and analyzing the historical facts involved is also brought up.
History of Psychiatry; psychiatric education; Hermelino Lopes Rodrigues
