Vita: Life in a Zone of Social Abandonment

457 Pages·2013·53.45 MB·English

by  João Biehl

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
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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