A bordo da nau da esperança: o Caps-Ad enquanto lugar de ressignificação da identidade do dependente químico em Campina Grande.

Abstract

The so-called civilized society intended to remove all those who represented disorder and abnormality, and the asylum soon became the ideal place for it. For a long time, psychiatric hospitals were responsible for enclosing subjects and removing their identities. Since the Psychiatric Reform, other models were being implemented in order to replace these institutions, one of which is the Centro de Atenção Psicossocial (Caps). Therefore, this study observes Caps-ad, a unit dedicated to the care of dependents of psychoactive substances, as a substitute for the asylum model in the care of chemical dependents in Campina Grande, Paraíba. The objective is to analyze and discuss the Caps-ad as a place for reframing the identity of the dependent, who, for a long time, has been, stigmatized by a standardized society. To build up a story of how the actors of madness lived in Campina Grande before the arrival of the first psychiatric hospital in the city, popularly known as João Ribeiro, I used texts by a local memorialist and historiography to observe, at first, the relationship between madness and chemical dependency. Furthermore, I used journalistic articles and oral reports from the memory of some historical actors who are currently being treated at the city’s Caps ad, in order to understand whether this new model of psychosocial care is enabling users’ autonomy, the reconstruction of their identities and their reintegration into the socio-cultural context. In addition to these sources, I bring the national discussions about psychiatric reform and chemical dependence into the dialogue. Through this analysis, I aim to think about the identity constructions around the chemically dependent person as a patient in the asylum and as user of the Caps-ad, supporting the research based on theorists such as Michel Foucault (2001), Stuart Hall (2006) and Erving Goffman (1974).