If you have been following our research you may have already taken notice of the particular richness of radical and creative efforts coming from our colleagues in Brazil. This Latin American country is one of our research sites and as we conduct interviews, archival research, travel for ethnographic observations and make connections with analysts and scholars in the region, we are still touched when we realise the level of presence psychoanalytic ideas have in discourse, be it in terms of public health, debates on race or in the political sphere at large.
On the 6th of May, 2024, when the country celebrates the ‘Dia do Psicanalista’, or, the Psychoanalysts’ Day, an analyst was invited by the Member of Congress, Erika Kokay, of the Brazilian Workers’ Party, to share some words about the meaning of this day.
Thessa Guimarães, Psychoanalyst and founding member of Psicanálise na Rua (Brasília), a free clinic collective from Central Brazil, delivered a powerful speech and we asked her if we could share it with the FREEPSY international community, for its inspiring value. Thessa spoke in Brazilian Portuguese, but here we have a version with English subtitles you can watch.
Thessa met our Postdoctoral Researcher Ana Minozzo in the Spring, when Ana was in São Paulo for fieldwork. They connected via two colleagues, Augusto Coaracy and Raoni Machado, both involved hands-on with free clinics and research at USP, the University of São Paulo. Augusto, in fact, is a member of the Coletivo Psicanálise na Praça Roosevelt, together with Anderson Santos, who visited us in January, and he was with us for the Mental Health Commons conference in April too. These affective links are particularly important if we follow the trail of Lara Sheehi’s approach to conducting international research in psychoanalysis and thinking of it as a matter of establishing bonds of friendship and trust. Perhaps, we can argue, speaking to a feminist-oriented praxis that breaks the researcher/object duality the social sciences still struggle with.
In this short but potent speech, Thessa Guimarães speaks of the legacy of Hélio Pellegrino and the Social Clinic of Psychoanalysis; about the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform and of the social implication of collectives that find in psychoanalytic ideas and forms of listening the grounds to imagine mental health beyond the reproduction of violence.
We hope you are inspired by it too!
You can follow the work of Psicanálise na Rua (Brasília) on their Instagram here.
Intervention of Thessa Guimarães – Câmara dos Deputados from ana minozzo on Vimeo.
