Class, race and gender in Psychiatric Reform: particularities of brazilian social formation

Abstract

The objective of the article is to analyze the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform from the colonial, dependent, racist and sexist background that marks the country's social formation. Based on research and bibliographical review, we seek to point out that there is a knot, a link between capitalism, patriarchy and racism in the particularity of Brazilian social formation, which determines the experiences of suffering and/or mental illness, especially among the working classes. This same link is still decisive in the development of mental health policy in the country, whose majority of its target audience also belongs to the working classes. It is concluded that the challenges imposed on PR go beyond the field of Mental Health itself, as they date back to Brazilian social formation, requiring a critical analysis and the confrontation of its historical determinants.