Abstract
This article explores the varied forms of labor used at the Juliano Moreira Colony in Rio de Janeiro during the first half of the twentieth century. It investigates the ideological justification psychiatrists made about the therapeutic value of work, and in particular, agricultural work, as a dominant medical regimen in the Colony. It is suggested that the Colony’s elision with labor resonated with a state that placed work and the worker as socio-political and cultural national centerpieces. Its appeal to the state was most likely the reason why the colony model became the predominant hospital structure when a muscular public health structure reorganized mental health services throughout the nation. The labor of the mentally ill in the Colony had no great generative use-value since their efforts were not sufficient to make the Colony sustainable. Moreover, labor therapy was not able to fully rehabilitate the majority of patients so that they could leave the institution and enter the labor force. Indeed, the presidency of Getúlio Vargas (1930–1945, 1951–1954), with its championing of the working classes, inflected the idea of labor with new significance. Therefore, the performance of labor in the Colony, in and of itself, had potent symbolic value. The work of the mentally ill in agricultural fields or carpentry workshops, although non-productive, can be understood as repertoires of social and political claim-making.
Highlights
Located in the Jacarepaguá district of Rio de Janeiro, the entrance gate plaque of the Juliano Moreira Colony reads “Praxis Omnia Vincit,” or “Work Conquers All.” Founded in 1924, the institution, as originally imagined, is no longer; it lost federal support and fell under the auspices of the city municipality by 1996
Named the Jacarepaguá Colony of Psychopaths (Colônia de Psicopatas de Jacarepaguá), it became known as the Juliano Moreira Colony, from 1935 onwards as a posthumous tribute to the well-respected and well-regarded illustrious psychiatrist who lauded the colony model for treating the mentally
As early as 1891, a Ministerial Report noted that the buildings of the colonies on Ilha do Governador and their space for farming were inadequate, making it imperative to create new buildings to house the mentally ill coming from the National Asylum (Brazil, 1891, p. 28)
Summary
Located in the Jacarepaguá district of Rio de Janeiro, the entrance gate plaque of the Juliano Moreira Colony reads “Praxis Omnia Vincit,” or “Work Conquers All.” Founded in 1924, the institution, as originally imagined, is no longer; it lost federal support and fell under the auspices of the city municipality by 1996. By examining the colony model and the varied forms of work therapies used in the Juliano Moreira Colony, and its expansion; this essay suggests that socio-cultural and political contexts, and their subtexts, matter.
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