For me, Paraty

Alcoholism and madness in Lima Barreto

Abstract

The article addresses the stigmatized image of the alcoholic at the beginning of the 20th century, pointing to the authoritarian thinking predominating at a time in which eugenic theories supported that racism, alcoholism, immorality, and genetic predisposition were all associated with madness. Also, the article makes use of annotations and writings by Lima Barreto, who questioned the explanations proposed by the contemporary eugenists concerning alcoholism as they characterized several alcohol-related diseases as being conditions commonly associated with mental impairment and social degradation. Concomitantly, the emergence of family collapses and arbitrary hospitalizations gave raise to such an unlucky existence.