Negra, louca... Assim me (nos) chamaram! Costuralidade, arte/educação e saúde mental de mulheres negras.

Abstract

This thesis aims to analyze the treatment of mental illness of black women in the area of art/educational practices developed in Psychosocial Care Centers (CAPS) in Pelotas/RS. In this context, art/educational practices propose a therapeutic work based on the psychosocial recovery of users with severe mental disorders, but which, when essentially forged in the field of education, becomes essential to pay attention to other dimensions, such as race-gender. It is known that racism has produced a structure of social inequalities placing racial or ethnic groups at a disadvantage in accessing the benefits generated by various institutions and thus allowing historical inequities in health to prevail. Therefore, the debate on mental health is fundamental to problematize the inequalities that directly impact the black population, especially black women who form the group most demeaned by the intersection of multiple social and racial oppressions. In this approach, the ongoing debate on racism, as well as its contradictions and ambiguities, is essential for reflecting on the current state of these relationships and, as a hypothesis, Institutional Racism, through prejudiced and discriminatory attitudes in the care routines of public health services, is a practice that effectively contributes to maintaining this scenario unchanged. For such, ethnic-racial issues in education and health are converged, seeking introductory debate between institutional racism and mental health through the theoretical scope where authors discuss the topic under different cultural and historical perspectives, especially in Brazil. This is a qualitative research of participant observation that used methodological tools such as semi-structured interviews, documentary analysis, and bibliographic survey in the dialog with different subjects and references. The methodological approach was revitalized by the possibility of an art/educational Sewing in which teacher training and ethnic-racial issues are problematized and aligned with an affective memory that "sews" the existence of other black women through their subjectivities and multiple experiences. Data analysis shows that art/educational practices in CAPS often neglect the racial dimensions in the treatment of mental illness and thus collaborate to maintain the institutional nuances of racism in their work processes. On the other hand, the black women interviewed in this study develop conditions of survival and care both through therapeutic approaches and through "being together" with their peers, performing a political and social resistance that is historical. As a result, an individual/collective Responsiveness of all the subjects involved is observed at different levels of consciousness, and through which black women, mainly, emerge from an aesthetic of existence using their own astuteness and ways of confronting racism