Introduction - alterity as pathology

medical discourses and their political uses

Abstract

The History of Health and Disease research into, among other topics, the power relations established between the political system and health institutions in various areas, and it has drawn the attention of historians in recent years. In this debate, the study of political and social relations that forged patterns of behavior, such as those that occurred in the first decades of the twentieth century. Inspired by European eugenics, the medical community has developed a public health project in Brazil to justify and legitimize the disciplining of individuals, culminating in different processes of social exclusion. For this propose, several mechanisms were adopted so that socially “undesirable” behaviors were represented by a pathology discourse about the difference. At the beginning of this century, traces of this mentality remain and can be noticed by the recent debate about the compulsory hospitalization of illicit drug users, neglect of women's health or even about the actual effectiveness of vaccines. In a serious moment, when institutions, the production of scientific knowledge (including medical knowledge) and democracy have been severely tested, we invite fellow researchers to discuss issues and approaches related to public health, its historical agents and possible developments.