The madness epidemic of Canudos: Antonio Conselheiro and the Jagunços (1897)

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Notes

Information on original publications and biographical notes about the author

By Ana Maria G. R. Oda, Professor of the Department of Medical Psychology and Psychiatry, State University of Campinas, Brazil. Editor of the section “História da Psiquiatria” [History of Psychiatry] of Revista Latinoamericana de Psicopatologia Fundamental.

Original publication: Nina Rodrigues, Raimundo (1897). A loucura epidêmica de Canudos. Antonio Conselheiro e os jagunços. Revista Brazileira, vol. 12, p. 129–144. Translation by Mônica S. Martins, technical revision by Ana Maria G. R. Oda. The format of the references has been updated. The text was republished in 2000 in Revista Latinoamericana de Psicopatologia Fundamental, vol. 3, n. 2, p. 145–157, preceded by an introductory article.

Raimundo Nina Rodrigues (1862–1906) collaborated in the establishment of three scientific fields in Brazil: Anthropology, Forensic Medicine, and Psychiatry. He graduated in Medicine in 1887 and taught at the School of Medicine of Bahia from 1889 to 1906, working as a full professor of Forensic Medicine as of 1895. He edited the Gazeta Medica da Bahia, one of the most important medical journals of the country, and contributed many articles to Brazilian and European periodicals. Based on racialist premises, he believed that psychopathologic reactions would be different according to the race of the individual (white, black, indigenous, or mestiço). He used as reference the social evolutionism of Herbert Spencer, the theory of degeneration (in the line of thought synthesized by Valentin Magnan), and the French and Italian branches of Criminology, with critical appropriations of the works of Alexandre Lacassagne and Cesare Lombroso, among others. In sum, he worked with the following ideas: racial interbreeding would always imply the physical and mental degeneration of the descendants, and such degeneration could be accentuated by environmental influences; among the degenerated, primitive instincts and aggressive behaviors could reappear under some social conditions; the mestiços were hybrid and unstable products, both physically and in their intellectual and cultural manifestations, and more inclined to some types of mental disease. The article “A loucura epidêmica de Canudos. Antonio Conselheiro e os jagunços” (1897) belongs to the field of the so-called Psychology of the Masses. In the text, Nina Rodrigues tries to demonstrate the influence of madness in the functioning of crowds, using Charles Lasègue and Jules Falret’s concept of mental contagion, and analyzes the social and political situation of the troubled Brazilian context (the slavery had been abolished in 1888 and the Republic established in 1889). Therefore, Raimundo Nina Rodrigues belongs to a group of intellectuals concerned with the constitution of Brazil as a modern nation at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century.

Disclosure statement

The author reports no conflicts of interest. The author alone is responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Notes

1 Not a single line of the considerations of this study was altered by the news that the telegraph has just brought to us that on October 5 the general Artur Oscar, who had been in Canudos since June, leading more than twelve thousand men, finally took over that stronghold, totally defeating the band of fanatics that was entrenched there. The dead body of Antonio Conselheiro was found, already buried in the sanctuary of a church, built in such proportions that it became an inexpugnable fortress. The behavior of Antonio Conselheiro, who kept his post until his death, when it would have been very easy to retreat from Canudos to a more strategic point, is the final confirmation of his madness on thoroughly performing the role of Blessed Jesus the Counselor, which the transformation of personality of his chronic delusion imposed on him. (Author’s note)

2 There is a typographical error in the original text and the author´s surname is “Favilla” instead of Foville. See Foville, Achille. Les aliénés voyageurs ou migrateurs: étude clinique sur certains cas de lypémanie. Annales médico-psychologiques, vol. 33, n. 14, p.5–45, 1875. (Revisor’s note).

3 Strictly, in the passive element of the vesanic contagion, madness is totally superficial and rootless. To make it disappear completely, it is enough to remove the individuals from the suggestive environment in which they are. (Author’s note)

4 See O animismo fetichista dos negros baianos [The fetishist animism of baiano blacks] published in Revista Brazileira of April 15, May l, June 15, July 1 and 15, August l, and September 4, 1896. (Author’s note)

5 Spencer, Herbert. First principles of a new system of philosophy. 2nd ed. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1869, p. 116. (Translator’s note)

6 E. Régis. A Practical Manual of Mental Medicine. Authorized translation by H. M. Bannister, A.M., M.D. Second Edition. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co., 1895. (Translator’s note)