Abstract
This article studies the construction of the memory of the Alagoas-born psychiatrist Nise da Silveira (1905-1999), reknown since the 1940s for her struggle against biomedical interventions considered violent and for the defense of expressive activities (mainly painting and modeling) as a form of mental health treatment. It focuses on projects currently developed at the Nise da Silveira Mental Health Institute, a centennial hospital complex located in the district of Engenho de Dentro, in Rio de Janeiro, emphasizing the Museum of Images of the Unconscious, the Madness Hotel and their respective leaders. Through fieldwork, it reveals a hierarchy of legitimacy concerning personal contact with the physician, which inscribes a tension between an official memory and an unofficial memory.
Keywords:
Nise da Silveira; Social memory; Psychiatric reform; Psychoanalysis; Mental health