Psychiatry and military conscription in Brazil: the search for opportunity and institutionalized therapy.

Since the fall of the Brazilian military dictatorship in 1984, a number of structural and ideological changes associated with demilitarization and democracy have changed the face of psychiatric theory and practice. Around the country, pockets of innovative, politically sensitive and Marxist-inspired community-based forms of "psi" practice are developing. This emergent psi movement is making a range of positive contributions to the lives of average citizens, including those of poor disenfranchized youth. This paper, however, explores one particular dimension of the work of psi practitioners that has proven antithetical to the psi community's current politicized community-based aims. Based on qualitative and quantitative longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork with therapists and young men in Pelotas, this paper analyzes how certain kinds of psi interventions being carried out in schools for a subset of lower-class young men during their early teen years are encouraging some youth to seek military training as a life option. Although these young men initially had quite captivating, engaged and politicized-if also conflicting-interactions with therapists, their eventual disillusionment with their therapeutic and scholastic experiences resulted in high levels of social alienation and de-politicization. In these young men's search for what can best be described as formulaic solutions to troubling psychological experiences associated with a tumultuous institutionalized transition to adulthood, military training came to represent a form of self-cultivation and self-therapy. Several youth also hoped military training would enable them to actively disengage with local political processes and find shelter from troubling social inequities and injustice. The paper ends by reviewing the implications of these results for the future of psi knowledge and practice in Brazil

Imagens no espelho de Vênus: mulher, enfermagem e modernidade Imágenes en el espejo de Venus: mujer, enfermería y modernidad Images in the Venus' mirror: woman, nursing and modernity

Objetivamos discutir o processo de construção da identidade profissional de enfermagem no marco da modernidade. Utilizamos como âncoras as categorias de gênero (Lobo, 1991) e pessoa moderna (Duarte, 1986). A modernidade como processo histórico situa a emergência do trabalho como categoria chave na relação público x privado. Entendendo a carreira como uma forma de construção e apresentação pública da pessoa moderna, discutimos o processo de construção da identidade profissional de enfermagem na relação com sua base feminina. Trabalhando a literatura etnográfica destes profissionais, vemos atualizado um imaginário que atribui à posição feminina da profissão grande parte de seus dilemas: crise de competência técnica, vocação e identidade.<br>El objetivo de esta investigación fue discutir el proceso de identidad de enfermería en el marco de la modernidad. Usamos como puntos de apoyo las categorías de género (LOBO, 1991) y de persona moderna (DUARTE, 1986). La modernidad como proceso histórico situa el surgimiento del trabajo como categoria clave en la relación entre lo público y lo privado. Entendiendo la carrera como un proceso de construcción y presentación pública de la persona moderna; discutimos el proceso de construcción de la identidad profesional de enfermería en relación con su base femenina. Trabajando la literatura etnográfica de estos profesionales, vemos actualizado un imaginario que atribuye a la posición femenina de la profesión grán parte de sus dilemas: crisis de competencia técnica, vocación e identidad.<br>This paper discusses the process of nursing professional identity construction in modernity. We utilize the ideas of category gender (Lobo, 1991) and modern person (Duarte, 1986). The modernity as a historical process establishes the emergence of work as a central category in the public X private relationship. Understanding the profession as form of construction and public presentation of the modern person, we discuss the nursing professional identity process in relation to its female basis. Working on nursing ethnographic bibliography, we identify a picture that gives to the female basis of the profession the greater cause of dilemmas such as: technical competence, vocation and identity