PATHWAYS IN ART AND MENTAL HEALTH:
Expressive Narratives of a course from the Swamp to the Lagoon
mental health and art
CAPS-I Lagoa da Prata
Catalytic affect
Cartography of affection
Photographic essay
This thesis proposed a theoretical, practical and artistic reflection about the relationship between Art and Mental Health. It sought, through an affective cartographic exercise, to present the work with expressive activities carried out by CAPS-I Bernardo Teixeira Amorim. During the fieldwork in this institution, a range of important data was collected, through semi-structured interviews and participant observation, in order to think how the Arts have been inserted in the context of Mental Health. As an observation parameter, we took the work developed by Nise da Silveira, who brings elements of a construction process of a practice based on expression, freedom and affection. Her concept of "catalyzing affection" was of great importance for the understanding of the data obtained in the field and for conducting the artistic process. Besides this important affective element for the creation, we used as aesthetic references the Bosch’s Nau dos Loucos, found in Foucault’s History of Madness; the painting A Barca do Sol, by Carlos Pertuis, presented in Imagens do Inconsciente, by Nise da Silveira; and one of the boats by Arthur Bispo do Rosário, found in a photograph at the exhibition A alguns Centímetros do Chão. The process of artistic creation is closely related to the theoretical work reviewed in the text and vice-versa, as an experiment inspired by a cartography guided by affections (DELEUZE and GUATTARI). The work confirms the need to seek creativity as an element for construction of a humanized Mental Health policy, with care conceived in a broadened form, with emphasis on interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity in the construction of dialogues in the educational field and in the formation of new professionals, psychologists, artists and others, more sensitive, human and creative.