The Brazilian psychiatrist Arthur Ramos carries on the tradition of an anthropological and cultural approach to psychopathological phenomena, begun by Raimundo Nina Rodrigues. During the first half of the 20th century, Ramos studied the phenomenon of madness by employing an interlocution with both psychoanalysis and anthropology. His contribution consists of more than a strictly psychopathological frame of reference. It also allows readers to question more deeply the processes of subjectivation proper to Brazilian cultural contexts, especially those of the poor and the black populations.
Psychopathology; madness; psychoanalysis; anthropology; culture