Desfile do 18 de maio em Belo Horizonte: a busca do elemento cultural como possibilidade de transformação dos significados sociais da loucura

Abstract

This work consisted on the investigation concerningthe May 18 parade in Belo Horizonte, a political and cultural event chosen bythe local militants as a way to celebrate the National Antimanicomial Day. The purpose was to investigate the transformation potential of the meanings of madnessthrough the parade, for which were used both qualitative and quantitative procedures to collect and analyze data through triangulation methods. Data were collected in threephases corresponding to the specific intents of the study, and the analysis process was operated using thematic content analysis and descriptive statistics. In the first phase took place a participant observation, by the immersion on the organization meetings of the parade, whose research subjects were the organizers and the objective was to know the construction process in a detailed manner. To map the data were used theoretical and conceptual categories from the four dimensions of Psychiatric Reform, proposed by Amarante (2003), which are: theoretical-conceptual, technical-assistancial, juridical-political and sociocultural. We also created three social categories due to the differentiation of content and / or shape of the emerging themes in the meetings according to the belonging group of the participants.They are: users, workers and managers of mental health services. Through the analysis it was found that the construction process of the parade brings contributions in all aspects of psychiatric reform, working mainly as a space for reflection upon the movement, may being considered a fundamental deployment of the Antimanicomial Movement in Minas Gerais. In the second phase of the research, questionnaires were applied during the parade, when the subjects researched became the parade viewers, and the purpose was to investigate which identificationemerged and what meanings were given to the parade. Closely linked to this phase, the third and final stage was operated through interviews with a movement militant and five spectators who identified the purpose of the parade. The objectives were, respectively, know the historical process that led to the parade and go deeply into the understanding of the meanings given to it. From the historical of the parade was ascertained that the choice of carnival as one of the forms of celebration of May 18 was not intentional, becoming carnival by the experimentation of samba as a cultural resource embedded by a social movement. Aiming to build a new relationship between society and madness and create consciousness in the public about the principles ofthe MLA (Antimanicomial Movement), the parade proved to be eloquent, communicating its goal primarily through his mobility and audio-visual resources linked to the carnival. Although effective, these forms showed themselves as insufficient, leading the movement to think in the investment of other forms of communication /dissemination. About the meanings given to the crazy and the madness, the parade showed a positive impact leveraging the deconstruction process of old meanings, giving evidences that the use of the carnival as a strategic cultural element is a right direction in the construction of a new social place for the called crazy.