Our aim in this paper was to analyze the contributions of Antônio Carlos Pacheco e Silva in establishing a psychiatric approach that included eugenics in the early decades of the 20 century in São Paulo. We discuss the influence of psychiatrists and other members of the São Paulo Mental Hygiene League (Liga Paulista de Higiene Mental) on the dissemination of racist theories for the treatment of minors labeled as "abnormal." We observed material at the Professor Carlos da Silva Lacaz Museum of History, at USP. In conclusion, we show how the science of eugenics, adapted to local conditions, was useful for psychiatry in the attempt justify social inequalities through the discourse of biology and in the legitimation of practices of institutionalization of children who might which genetically thwart the formation of a "pure race of humans in the State of São Paulo."
History of psychiatry; eugenics; Juquery Hospital; childhood