The metamorphosis of Adelina Gomes: gender and sexuality in the analytical psychology of Nise da Silveira

Abstract

The case of Adelina Gomes (1916-1984) is analyzed in this article. She was an intern in the old National Psychiatric Center of Engenho de Dentro, in Rio de Janeiro, between 1937 and 1984, the year of her death. Adelina became known for producing more than 17,500 works, including paintings and sculptures. These materials could only exist due to the action of the Alagoas born psychiatrist Nise da Silveira (1905-1999), responsible for pioneering in the therapeutic implementation of expressive workshops in the referred hospital. The clinical case report of the patient, as analyzed by her therapist, is used to explore the way in which issues of gender and sexuality were imprinted in psychiatric institutions and medical-psychological knowledges during the twentieth century, with special reference to the analytical psychology of C. G. Jung and its appropriation by Nise da Silveira. Through the analysis of bibliographic documents, it is arguented that this knowledge, although differing from Freudian psychoanalysis and somatic medicine, operates a naturalization in the statute of the feminine.