Vita: Life in a Zone of Social Abandonment PDF
Preview Vita: Life in a Zone of Social Abandonment
VI T A Life in a Zone of Social Abandonment Joao Biehl Photographs by Torben Eskerod Updated with a New Afterword and Photo Essay University of California Press Berkeley Los Angeles London VITA VI T A Life in a Zone of Social Abandonment Joao Biehl Photographs by Torben Eskerod Updated with a New Afterword and Photo Essay University of California Press Berkeley Los Angeles London University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2005, 2013 by The Regents of the University of California ISBN 978-0-520-27295-8 The Library of Congress has cataloged an earlier edition of this book as follows: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Biehl, Joao Guilherme. Vita: life in a zone of social abandonment / Joao Biehl; photographs by Torben Eskerod. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-520-24278-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Vita (Asylum: Porto Alegre, Brazil) 2. Institutional care-Brazil-Porto Alegre. 3. Marginality, Social- Brazil-Porto Alegre. 1. Title. HV63.B6B54 2005 362'.0425'098I5-dc22 2005041745 Manufactured in the United States of America 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 IS 14 13 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO z39.48-I992 (R 2002) (Permanence ofP aper). For Adriana and Andre Contents Introduction:“Dead alive, dead outside, alive inside” 1 PART ONE. VITA A Zone of Social Abandonment 35 Brazil 46 Citizenship 56 PART TWO. CATARINA AND THE ALPHABET Life of the Mind 71 Society of Bodies 75 Inequality 82 Ex-Human 85 The House and the Animal 92 “Love is the illusion of the abandoned” 99 Social Psychosis 102 An Illness of Time 108 God, Sex, and Agency 111 PART THREE. THE MEDICAL ARCHIVE Public Psychiatry 123 Her Life as a Typical Patient 126 Democratization and the Right to Health 130 Economic Change and Mental Suffering 138 Medical Science 146 End of a Life 151 Voices 159 Care and Exclusion 163 Migration and Model Policies 171 Women, Poverty, and Social Death 179 “I am like this because of life” 187 The Sense of Symptoms 192 Pharmaceutical Being 199 PART FOUR. THE FAMILY Ties 209 Ataxia 218 Her House 229 Brothers 235 Children, In-Laws, and the Ex-Husband 240 Adoptive Parents 248 “To want my body as a medication, my body” 257 Everyday Violence 265 PART FIVE. BIOLOGY AND ETHICS Pain 271 Human Rights 274 Value Systems 278 Gene Expression and Social Abandonment 282 Family Tree 292 A Genetic Population 297 A Lost Chance 307 PART SIX. THE DICTIONARY “Underneath was this, which I do not attempt to name” 313 Book i 321 Book ii 322 Book iii 327 Book iv 327 Book v 330 Book vi 331 Book vii 333 Book viii 334 Book ix 335 Book x 335 Book xi 336 BookxII 337 Book XIII 339 BookxIV 340 Bookxv 341 BookxVI 342 Book XVII 343 Book XVIII 346 BookxIX 348 "A way to the words" 3 53 Conclusion: "I am part of the origins, not just of language, but of people" 359 Postscript: AFTERWORD Return to Vita 365 Acknowledgments 399 Notes 403 Bibliography 413 Index 431
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