“Meu Convívio com a Esquizofrenia”: a experiência singular de Albertina Borges da Rocha (1964-1981)

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the life trajectory of Albertina Borges da Rocha, born in 1930 and diagnosed with schizophrenia. Throughout her life, Albertina underwent four hospitalizations at the Instituto de Psiquiatria Adauto Botelho in Rio de Janeiro. However, more than being merely an object of psychiatry, Albertina became the narrator of her own experience by publishing, in 2003, the autobiography A História de Beta and, in 2012, Meu convívio com a esquizofrenia. This study adopts this narrative as its primary source, intertwining it with the history of madness and psychiatry in Brazil between the 1961s and 1984s, while problematizing the medicalization of gender and institutional practices. Based on an approach that considers patients' testimonies as legitimate historical documents, the dissertation analyzes how Albertina, through her writing, interrupts the tradition of silencing patient discourses and asserts authority over her own experience. Divided into three chapters, the work begins by analyzing Albertina's psychiatric institutionalization, discussing the schizophrenia diagnosis attributed to her; it then explores her engagement with occupational therapy and the workshops of the Museum of Images of the Unconscious, under the coordination of psychiatrist Nise da Silveira; finally, it examines her writing as an act of resistance and subjective reconstruction. Drawing from the historiography of madness and psychiatry, gender studies, and reflections on autobiographical testimonies, this study seeks to understand how Albertina despite being marked by a highly stigmatizing diagnosis reacted, re-signified, and rewrote her own story, challenging the boundaries between madness, authorship, and humanity.