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Brazilian psychiatrist Nise da Silveira refused to treat her patients in Rio de Janeiro with lobotomy or electroshock. From 1946 she gave them studios for painting and modelling instead, and their work became the core of the Museum of Images of the Unconscious, founded in 1952.

Nise da Silveira

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The story behind the card

Da Silveira qualified in medicine in Bahia in 1926, the only woman among 157 graduates. At a public psychiatric hospital in Rio she ran the occupational therapy section, where patients were treated through practical and creative activities. She saw painting not as a pastime but as a way to understand patients who could not easily put their experiences into words. In 1956 she opened Casa das Palmeiras, an outpatient centre where former patients could keep making art as they adjusted to life outside hospital. She corresponded with Carl Jung and led Rio's C. G. Jung Study Group until 1968. In 2022 Brazil entered her name in its official Book of Heroes and Heroines of the Homeland.

Türkçe oku
Brezilyalı psikiyatr Nise da Silveira, Rio de Janeiro'daki hastalarına lobotomi ve elektroşok uygulamayı reddetti. 1946'dan itibaren onlara resim ve kil atölyeleri açtı; hastaların burada yaptığı işler, 1952'de kurulan Bilinçdışı İmgeleri Müzesi'nin temelini oluşturdu.

Da Silveira 1926'da Bahia'da tıp fakültesini bitirdi; 157 mezunun arasındaki tek kadındı. Rio'daki bir devlet psikiyatri hastanesinde ergoterapi, yani uğraşı terapisi bölümünü yönetti; burada hastalar el işi ve sanat gibi etkinliklerle tedavi ediliyordu. Resmi bir oyalanma değil, yaşadıklarını sözle anlatmakta zorlanan hastaları anlamanın bir yolu olarak görüyordu. 1956'da taburcu olan hastaların hastane dışındaki hayata alışırken sanat üretmeyi sürdürebilecekleri Casa das Palmeiras adlı bir ayakta tedavi merkezi açtı. Carl Jung'la mektuplaştı ve 1968'e kadar Rio'daki C. G. Jung Çalışma Grubu'na başkanlık etti. Brezilya 2022'de adını ülkenin resmî Ulusal Kahramanlar Kitabı'na yazdı.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Nise da Silveira
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