This article presents the text entitled (English translation) "General Considerations on Mental Alienation" (Peixoto, 1837), considered the first thesis in the field of psychiatry in Brazil. Its author literally copied long excerpts from two French medical dictionaries, the Dictionnaire de médecine et de chirurgie pratiques and Dictionnaire des sciences médicales. This was not simple scientific appropriation of texts, but plagiarism, comprising almost the entire thesis. The specific context of the production of this and other theses of students at the faculties of medicine in the nineteenth century should be considered when analyzing the history of Brazilian psychiatry. This approach questions the role of theses as local expressions of alienism or as indicative of typical academic production at faculties of medicine.
Antonio Luiz da Silva Peixoto; medical theses - nineteenth century; medical dictionaries - nineteenth century; alienism