Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Both theory and practice - The Psychiatrist by Machado de Assis

Wuthering Expectations will be closed for the holiday on Thursday and Friday.  Next week, if all goes well, I will balance my Eça de Queirós obsession with some Machado de Assis.  Exact contemporaries, careful readers of each other’s work – Eça actually rewrote an entire novel because of Machado’s criticisms – they could hardly be more different.

A preview today, Machado’s novella The Psychiatrist (1881-2), a prescient satire of the new profession and of social science in general.  I read it in The Psychiatrist and Other Stories (1963); William L. Grossman translated.

A famous psychiatrist, “one of the greatest doctors in all Brazil, Portugal, and the Spains,” returns to his obscure home town to conduct his researches, marries, and opens a mental asylum, although to many citizens “[t]he idea of having madmen live together in the same house seemed itself to be a symptom of madness” (3).  Dr. Bacamarte’s reasons for choosing his wife (“neither beautiful nor charming”) tells us exactly who he is:

The doctor replied that Dona Evarista enjoyed perfect digestion, excellent eyesight, and normal blood pressure; she had had no serious illnesses and her urinalysis was negative.  It was likely she would give him healthy, robust children… he would not be tempted to sacrifice his scientific pursuits to the contemplation of his wife’s attractions.” (1)

After the first surprisingly large “torrent of madmen,” Dr. Bacamarte’s theories evolve, and the definition of insanity expands.  A revolutionary political plot develops, opposed to the coercive madhouse, at least until it takes power and the madhouse becomes a useful tool for enforcing the junta’s power.

Soon enough, eighty percent of the town’s population are in the asylum, which leads the psychiatrist to again revise his theories: because, statistically, insanity is the norm, the insane must therefore be sane, and the sane insane.  The eighty percent are released; members of the bizarrely “mentally well balanced” twenty percent are put in the madhouse.  Soon the asylum is full of the town’s most unusual inhabitants: the modest, the truthful, the wise.

Can you guess how the story ends?

“This is a matter of science, of a new doctrine,” he said, “and I am the first instance of its application.  I embody both theory and practice.”  (44)

Machado’s story zips through many of the next century’s critiques of psychiatry, from the shaky authority of the psychiatrist to the abuse of the field by totalitarians, all of this pre-Freud.  His novels, first person and digressive, are quite different.  The Psychiatrist is focused, fierce and purposeful.

13 comments:

  1. Interesting, do you think Saramago was paying homage to Machado with his plot setup in Blindness? The 80% hospitalized, the political definitions & redefinitions of (mental) illness? (I have a real soft spot for stories with this type of conceit.)

    I'm very intrigued by this, but neither my library system nor my main bookstore has it...maybe I can ILL it.

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  2. I've never read Saramago. That's in Blindness? Then the answer to your question is : Yes!

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  3. Well, I don't think literally 80% get hospitalized in Blindness; (almost) the whole population goes blind before the authorities can manage that. But it definitely sounds like there are some shared themes.

    Just put in an ILL request, so hopefully I'll be able to see for myself!

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  4. This novella is insane! I already zipped through ten of Machado's stories in the Oxford anthology. He's already a favorite.

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  5. Now that needs exploring. Will have to order it.

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  6. It's a heck of a story. I've got to get to work on my Oxford Anthology of Brazilian Short Stories.

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  7. There seems to be a new translation about to be published with the title The Alienist.

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  8. Hey, yes, look at that, a Melville House Art of the Novella edition of Machado. Collectors of the series, start saving your dimes! Hardy, Cather, Leskov's Enchanted Wanderer.

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  9. I thought you might enjoy the news. I didn't want to wait so I ordered a French copy.

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  10. The translator is listed as W.L. Grossman. Maybe they just retitled it.

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  11. Yes, that's right - same translation, improved title. That Art of the Novella series is mostly a reprint line.

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  12. And what novel did Eça de Queirós re-write because of Machado de Assis' criticism? This is great news! It is true that Machado criticized Eça for, among other things, being a "naturalista"; only after that did Machado wrote, later, his two great and provocative novels about adultery, Dom Casmurro and Brás Cubas. But yes, they are both great novelists! :-)

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  13. O Crime do Padre Amaro, that's the one Eça rewrote.

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