The Psychiatrist by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
"The Psychiatrist" is a satirical novella by Brazilian author Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, exploring themes of madness, societal norms, and the nature of sanity. The narrative follows Simao Bacamarte, an esteemed doctor who forsakes prestigious appointments in Europe to return to his hometown, Itaguai, to study science. His quest for knowledge takes a turn when his marriage to Dona Evarista fails to produce children, prompting him to investigate sterility and eventually leading him to psychopathology. Bacamarte establishes the Green House, a facility for the study of mental illness, where his increasingly arbitrary definitions of madness lead to the internment of a significant portion of the local population, including his own wife.
The story critiques the thin line between sanity and insanity, culminating in a chaotic revolt against Bacamarte's authority. As he grapples with the implications of his theories, he realizes that his quest for absolute equilibrium may itself be a form of madness. In a twist of irony, Bacamarte ultimately finds himself dependent on the very system he created, leading to his self-imposed commitment to the Green House. This poignant narrative invites readers to reflect on the complexities of human behavior and the often arbitrary constructs of societal norms regarding mental health.
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The Psychiatrist by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
First published: "O alienista," 1881-1882 (English translation, 1963)
Type of plot: Satire
Time of work: The early nineteenth century
Locale: Itaguai, a town near Rio de Janeiro
Principal Characters:
Dr. Simao Bacamarte , the psychiatristDona Evarista Da Costa E Mascarenhas , his wifeCrispim Soares , a druggist, one of Bacamarte's closest friendsFather Lopes , the vicarPorfirio Caetano Das Neves (Stewed Corn) , a local barber
The Story
According to the town chronicles, Simao Bacamarte, one of the greatest doctors in Europe, turned down two extremely prestigious crown appointments to return to his native Itaguai and devote his life to science. He settled there and married Dona Evarista, the story goes, not for love, but because she seemed to him a biologically promising specimen to mother his children.
When the children fail to come, Bacamarte dedicates himself to an exhaustive study of sterility. Realizing the therapeutic value of study itself, he hits on psychopathology, a then-unknown specialty in the realm, as a way not only to contribute to science but also to alleviate his disappointment in not having an heir.
He appeals to the town council for aid, and, to support him, it enacts a tax on the plumes on the horses that pull funeral carriages. With this money, Bacamarte erects the Green House, which will be both asylum and laboratory for his studies of mental illness. Within months, the Green House is home for madmen and madwomen of all varieties. Bacamarte becomes so involved in his studies of these pathetic cases that he ignores all else in life, and he finally has to send Evarista on her longed-for journey to Rio de Janeiro to keep her happy. Now free to labor without interruption, he develops a new theory that the slightest sign of lack of equilibrium is proof of madness, and by the time Evarista returns from Rio de Janeiro, the Green House is full to the rafters with people who have loaned away an inheritance, demonstrated excessive interest in a house ("petrophilia"), or are unfailingly polite.
Almost everyone in town by now has a relative or loved one behind bars, and a minor revolt led by the barber Porfirio (called "Stewed Corn") thus swells to a mob and storms Bacamarte's house. A troop of dragoons arrives to quell the disorder, but many of its number defect to the "Stewed Corners," and in a matter of minutes the barber has taken over the town and deposed the council. Porfirio goes to see Bacamarte and offers a compromise, which prompts another barber, Joao Pina, to depose Porfirio. Government troops finally arrive to restore order, whereupon Bacamarte commits Porfirio and fifty of his followers to the asylum. Within months, the psychiatrist discovers some flaw in most of the population, including his wife (who, he finds, exhibits "vestimania," or excessive preoccupation with clothing), his friend Crispim Soares, and the president of the town council. With four-fifths of the population interned, he comes to the realization that his theory is flawed, and he now decides that complete equilibrium, not its lack, is proof of madness. He releases the patients and starts his search for persons of irreproachable virtue, starting with Father Lopes and the only honest councilman, and ending with Porfirio, who has refused to lead a new revolt.
Such chronic virtue, the psychiatrist soon discovers, is easily cured, and in the end he has effected a cure on every one of the perfectly balanced persons in town—until he realizes that he himself is above reproach. He interns himself in the Green House and dies before finding a cure for his indefectibility.