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O alienista
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For the Caleb Carr novel, see The Alienist.

"O alienista" (translated as "The Psychiatrist" then "The

Alienist") is a satiric novella written by the Brazilian author
Machado de Assis (1839–1908). The story ran in Rio de
Janeiro's newspaper A Estação (from 15 October 1881 to 15
March 1882), then was published in 1882 as part of the
author's short-story collection Papéis avulsos ("Single
Papers").[1] An English translation was published in 1963.

"The Psychiatrist"

by Machado de Assis

Original title O alienista

Translator William L. Grossman

Country Brazil

Language Portuguese

Genre(s) Novella, satire

Published in Papéis avulsos

Publication type Anthology

Media type Print

Publication date (1881–)1882

Published in English 1963

In 1970, the story was adapted into the comedy film The
Alienist. In 2007, it was adapted into a same-titled graphic
novella by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá (and won the 2008
Prêmio Jabuti[2] for educational material).

Plot summary
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Published a year after Machado's first major novel, Memórias

Póstumas de Brás Cubas, "The Psychiatrist" follows the
scientific efforts of Dr. Simon Bacamarte (Simão Bacamarte in
the original – "bacarmarte" being Portuguese for
"blunderbuss", an old scattershot gun). Bacamarte, a Brazil-
born Portuguese (when Brazil was a colony), is a prominent
physician whose sincere obsession for discovering a universal
method to cure pathological disorders drives inhabitants of
the small Brazilian town of Itaguaí to fear, conspiracy, and
revolutionary attempts.

Chapters 1–4

In a short space of time, Bacamarte's newly opened asylum,

popularly named "the Green House" (Casa Verde), passes to
take inside of its walls not only mentally ill patients but also
healthy citizens who, according to the doctor's diagnoses, are
about to develop some sort of mental illness.

Chapters 5–10

Porfírio, the town's barber, indicts Bacamarte for his

corruptive influence over the Municipal Council, which since
the beginning approved the experiments taken place at the
Green House, "the Bastille of human Knowledge". A revolt and
council change ensues, but the new regime proposes an
alliance to the alienist, until being toppled back to the original
council. The local priest also misquotes Dante.

Chapters 11–12

This gives pause to Bacamarte, who changes his tack and

decides that balanced people are actually a small minority,
and thus the anomaly that should be cured: the modest, the
loyal, the wise, the patient, etc., are now admitted to be
scientifically disequilibrated according to his new theory.

Chapter 13

After they all have been "cured" and discharged, Bacamarte

eventually considers that he is the most well-balanced person
of the village and thus the one most in need of treatment.
Uncompromising to the last, he locks himself alone into his
asylum, where he dies seventeen months later. The village
concludes that he was the only madman from day one. "Be
that as it may, his funeral was conducted with great pomp and
rare solemnity."

English editions

Modern fiction

See also

References

External links

Last edited 10 months ago by Gondolabúrguer

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