From documented events to managed documents

the Brazilian mental health policy in dispute

Abstract

In December 2015, the appointment of Valencius Wurch to the charge of General Coordinator of Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drugs, rekindled the debates about mental health care in Brazil, causing the theme psychiatric reform to return the arena of political discussions widely disseminated. The appointment of the manager generated repudiation notes, notes of support and mobilizations around the country and in the social networks. These actions were documented and reached the pages of the newspapers of the great press, demonstrating the existence of a dispute about the politics of mental health. In this article, will be presented the opposing actions and in favor of Valencius, showing how they are based on accusations that delimit boundaries. The analysis of the actions and accusations makes it possible to propose that the dispute around the mental health policy is organized through an interesting movement of documenting events and managing documents, updating older conflicts of the Brazilian process of psychiatric reform. Thus, the main objective of this article is, in the light of anthropological considerations about documents, to reflect about the documentary dimension of this dispute.