The construction of the artistic productions social memory in Brazil’s the mental health field post-psychiatric reform

Abstract

Since the Psychiatric Reform in Brazil, many artistic groups have emerged in the mental health field contributing to the social and cultural participation construction of the assisted population. The social memory construction of these productions occurs among disputes of concepts, highlights a set of tensions between potential differences that fight for reassuring themselves, and aims at opening up to the new. By critically reflecting on texts that describe projects in the interface between art and mental health, we point out elements that suggest two ways for the construction of these projects social memory: as work, and as invention. Memory as work is used as an instrument for social transformation and results from the actors’ militancy, as they build visibility and rely on collective sensibility changes regarding concepts about madness. Memory as invention is enhanced by the intensive quality of the encounters among actors and also by the productions impact. The article articulates flows of desire and aesthetic experiences that shift identities and creates a field of reception ways permanent invention.This process highlights a tension between a memory molecular dimension that opens its horizons for the transversal conceptions of art and madness, by attesting its differences, and it transforms the map of what is perceivable and also the molar dimension, that emphasizes the trends towards categorizations of specific sectors, or as a production which is directly related to the expected social effects produced as a result of the Psychiatric Reform initiatives.