BRAZIL-HEALTH: Boost for Mental Health

By Fabiana Frayssinet Reprint | | Print |

Fabiana Frayssinet

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 1 1996 (IPS) - At 26-years-old, Maycon has achieved his ambition to become a journalist – although he is working far outside mainstream media activities in Brazil.

Maycon, along with fellow patients at the Rio de Janeiro psychiatric hospital, is a member of “TV Pinel” – a television programme which uses satire to try and change the image society has of “lunatics.”

“The difference in our programme, compared to the usual medical-type shows, is that we use humour to satirize our own situation and the situation of society in general,” Maycon told IPS.

The programme, transmitted once a month on a State TV channel, is part of a new therapeutic project at the Phillipe Pinel Psychiatric Hospital and the Ministry of Health. It employs the new principles of the psychiatric reform being implemented in Brazil which, unlike the old methods which cosseted patients from the outside world, encourages the social integration of the mentally ill.

“With TV Pinel we have broken down the walls of the asylum and are showing society another image of the mentally ill – people who suffer and have problems but who are also capable of being productive and creative,” said psychologist Doralice Araujo.

“The final objective is to achieve a new type of relation, both internally and in the (patients’) families and society.”

The TV programme features a segment called “Locotidiano,”- or “Daily Madness” – where psychiatric patients present their day- to-day views of reality and where they laugh at themselves.

A typical joke: “I got up early, shaved, put on my socks, shirt and tie, put on my jacket, sprayed on scent and said to my mother, ‘I’m off to the hospital.’ ‘What?’ She said, ‘Like that, without your trousers?”‘

This is just one of the gags told in “Locotidiano” by programme’s star patient-commedian Clovis Braga, who acknowledged that psychiatric reform has changed his life.

“Before, we were interned – they left us shut in a hospital for several months – and we walked up and down without knowing what to do. Now, we can come and go as we please, walk around the hospital, we are free, we are no longer tied to the asylum,” he said.

TV Pinel deals with the other side of madness, the suffering, with programmes like “Tragedies of Private Life” achieving what hours of conventional therapy often can’t do: liberate patients from their darkest fears.

“Tragedies of Private Life,” a parody of a popular TV programme “Comedies of private life” is presented with the titles presented on a toilet roll.

Amongst other scenes written and produced totally by the patients, a man is sat on a toilet, he relieves himself and pulls the chain. The camera goes close up on the toilet bowl but when it gets there what the camera sees is censored by electronic distortions normally used in television to hide the identity of the person being interviewed.

“Society has a prejudiced image of madness. They believe a mentally ill person is out of their head the whole time, but the real situation is different. You can walk down the street with these people without distinguishing them,” said Araujo.

There’s no confusion on “who is mad and who ismn’t” when it comes to recording the TV Pinel programmes. task. Camera operators, directors, actors, lighting technicians, sound engineers are all patients of the psychiatric hospital.

Journalists talking with a doctor on the institutional problems of mental illness were startled to discover he too was a patient in the hospital.

“I used to believe in the existence of a clear dividing line between normal people and the mentally ill. But since I started to work here, I’ve realised this line is increasingly difficult to perceive,” said Valter File, an advisor to the TV Pinel crew.

With ten years experience in community television, File said that TV Pinel confirmed that anybody is capable of communicating and the patients on the programme helped destroy the popular myth on the brilliance of madness.

“I don’t think that brilliant creativity is a privilege of madness, although certainly some of the people show that, when there is a possibility to express yourself with no commitment it can be more spontaneous, and the creation process is much faster,” said File.

Such creativity can be seen when attending a taping session at TV pinel — such as a drama segment of a woman abandoned by her husband when he heads out for a nightly outing, and returns home through the window as a vampire!

Alhough it is too early to speak of long-term results – TV Pinel was only created in April last year – Araujo believes the programme has helped strengthen the self-esteem of most patients.

Maycon certainly supported this view. “Working on TV Pinel allowed me to show my art,” he said. “Art is necessary for all people. I want to give a message of peace to all the world.”