ABSTRACT

Objective:

To describe the history of creation, development, and topics covered by the Study Center of the Institute of Psychiatry of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (CE – IPUB/UFRJ) over its 70 years.

Methods:

Research in newspapers of the Hemeroteca Brasileira Digital, internal documents of IPUB/UFRJ, and interviews with eyewitnesses of the functioning of the CE.

Results:

The Study Center has been operating on an uninterrupted basis for 70 years, every week. 472 events have been identified since the founding of the CE, but numerous other meetings have taken place. The findings were described in three major groups: 1. Academic meetings in the first half of the 20th century and insertion of the CE in the history of IPUB; 2. Topics discussed and presentations; 3. Changes in periodicity and format.

Conclusions:

The CE produces cultural and scientific dissemination continuously since its foundation. The type and format of events have changed over time, adapting to the needs of their community, but always serving as an important beacon for the training of specialists in mental health, dissemination of research, and tendencies about psychiatry worldwide, Latin America, and Brazil.

KEYWORDS
Scientific communication and diffusion; history of medicine; psychiatric hospitals; scientific and educational events; lecture

RESUMO

Objetivo:

Descrever a história da criação e do desenvolvimento e os temas abordados pelo Centro de Estudos do Instituto de Psiquiatria da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (CE – IPUB/UFRJ) ao longo de seus 70 anos.

Métodos:

Pesquisa em jornais da Hemeroteca Brasileira Digital, documentos internos do IPUB/UFRJ e entrevistas com testemunhas oculares do funcionamento do CE.

Resultados:

O Centro de Estudos funciona de maneira ininterrupta há 70 anos, semanalmente. Desde sua fundação, 472 eventos foram identificados, mas outros inúmeros encontros ocorreram. Os achados foram divididos e descritos em três grandes grupos: 1. Encontros acadêmicos na primeira metade do século XX e inserção do CE na história do IPUB; 2. Temas debatidos e apresentações; 3.Mudanças de periodicidade e formato.

Conclusões:

O CE produz divulgação cultural e científica continuamente desde sua fundação. O tipo e o formato dos eventos mudaram ao longo do tempo, adaptando-se às necessidades de sua comunidade, mas sempre servindo como um importante farol para a formação de especialistas em saúde mental e divulgação de pesquisas, apresentando as tendências da psiquiatria mundial, latino-americana e brasileira.

PALAVRAS-CHAVE
Comunicação e divulgação científica; história da medicina; hospitais psiquiátricos; eventos científicos e de divulgação; aula

INTRODUCTION

Making scientific data accessible to public is a challenge in academic research. Nowadays, the scientific world could use internet to publish articles, podcasts, online classes, streaming videos, and so on. However, internet is a recent technology, so academics have previously used other ways to publicize their findings. One of them, as old as the Ancient Greeks, are public lectures during academic meetings.

In Rio de Janeiro, it is usual for college and post-graduation courses to have a recurrent meeting where scientific production can be shared with partners, but its exact origins are not clear. Despite that, it is possible that the “Centro de Estudos” (CE – study center, in a literal translation, but better translated as Weekly Meeting of the Institute) of Rio de Janeiro’s Federal University Institute of Psychiatry (Instituto de Psiquiatria da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – IPUB/UFRJ) to be the oldest regular public academic meeting about mental health still in activity in Brazil.

In 2021, IPUB’s CE complete 70 years from its first regular week-meeting, on February, 26th of 1951¹1 Reuniões. Centro de Estudos do Instituto de Psiquiatria da Universidade do Brasil. Correio da Manhã. 1951 Feb 27. Available from: http://bndigital.bn.br/hemeroteca-digital/
http://bndigital.bn.br/hemeroteca-digita... . To celebrate this historical mark, it is here presented a brief report to elucidate its origins, meeting themes, and development as it has had an enormous impact on Brazilian and international psychiatry.

METHODS

“Hemeroteca Digital Brasileira” (HDB), a Brazilian repository of documents from the last 2 and a half centuries, was screened for the CE events. Also, CE registries in IPUB files were accessed, as Jornal Brasileiro de Psiquiatria (JBP) previous issues, and an interview with one of the actual coordinators (Andrea Deslandes). Two CE coordinators of the last 30 years were also interviewed, looking for information about the format that was not available in the documents. Three authors are direct eyewitnesses of the recent CE history as former director (MTC), researcher (AEN), and student (HRN), and provided memory reports.

RESULTS

The HDB retrieved 76 unique CE events from February 26th of 1951 to July 7th of 1987. Most events identified were during the ’50s and ’60s. An intern document reported all the 46 CE events during the year 1963, and further search in the physical file of JBP during the 60’s identified other 19 events. Finally, CE physical reports were found, starting in 75 to 2001, adding 250 entries to our sample, and electronic repositories contributed with other 91 entries from 2017 to 2020. This results may be observed in figure 1.

The total amount of unique entries was 472 since some entries were represented in the HDB, inner IPUB documents, and in JBP publications. Our results are described in three main themes: 1. Academic meetings in the first half of the 20th century and CE Insertion in IPUB’s history; 2. Debated themes and presentations; 3. Periodicity and format changes. A detailed description of each event is out of the scope of the present report, but the resulting list may be requested by the direct authors’ contact.

DISCUSSION

1. Academic meeting in the first half of the 20th century and CE Insertion in IPUB’s history

HDB has entries about scientific meetings being held in Brazil since 1906, so, our findings suggests that academic sessions were held regularly by medical societies, at least since the very beginning of the 20^th century. We also find entries in HDB about scientific sessions held in other countries and Brazilian states in the first half of the 20^th century. It was in 1906 where was reported by the journal “Correio da Manhã” a call for a “study center” in social sciences to be held on September 23rd²2 Operária V. Centro de Estudos sociais. Correio da Manhã. 1936 Sep 23. Available from: http://bndigital.bn.br/hemeroteca-digital/
http://bndigital.bn.br/hemeroteca-digita... , among others similar events. In the next year, the Brazilian Society of Neurology, Psychiatry and Legal Medicine (BSNPLM) would be founded, and a report from the “Jornal do Comércio” on November 16th of 1917 confirms that a regular scientific meeting was held at that institution³3 Sociedade Brasileira de Neurologia P e ML. 10o aniversário. Jornal do Commercio. 1917 Nov 16. Available from: http://bndigital.bn.br/hemeroteca-digital/
http://bndigital.bn.br/hemeroteca-digita... .

These sessions were carried at “Hospital Nacional de Alienados”³3 Sociedade Brasileira de Neurologia P e ML. 10o aniversário. Jornal do Commercio. 1917 Nov 16. Available from: http://bndigital.bn.br/hemeroteca-digital/
http://bndigital.bn.br/hemeroteca-digita... , in which the observation pavilion would be later transformed in IPUB⁴4 Venâncio ATA. Psychiatric science and social service policy: the creation of the University of Brazil’s Institute of Psychiatry. Hist Cienc Saude Manguinhos. 2003;10(3):883-900.. It was not possible to identify, however, if such meetings have any influence on the further foundation of CE in 1951. Also, it is necessary to say that “Centro de Estudos” was not the usual name of such meetings in Brazil at the beginning of the 20th century, being used for any educational meetings. Between the found entries in HDB using “Centro de Estudos” as the search string, it is possible to find references to universities, schools, and recurrent Kardecist spiritual sessions.

“Hospital Nacional de Alienados” observation pavilion became IPUB as part of the concession of the entire facility to “Universidade do Brasil”, the previous name o UFRJ, in 1938⁴4 Venâncio ATA. Psychiatric science and social service policy: the creation of the University of Brazil’s Institute of Psychiatry. Hist Cienc Saude Manguinhos. 2003;10(3):883-900.. No entries about academic meetings were found during its first 12 years, from 1938 to 50. Then in February 26th of 1951, it was funded the CE of IPUB, with Maurício de Medeiros as its president, and Alfredo de Moraes Coutinho Filho, Jurandir Manfredini and William Asmar as permanent members¹1 Reuniões. Centro de Estudos do Instituto de Psiquiatria da Universidade do Brasil. Correio da Manhã. 1951 Feb 27. Available from: http://bndigital.bn.br/hemeroteca-digital/
http://bndigital.bn.br/hemeroteca-digita... .

The inauguration of CE is probably part of the changes implemented by Maurício de Medeiros to improve IPUB’s assistance and academic practices. During his period as IPUB director, he structured the offered courses, organized the insertion of psychiatry rotation in the medicine course, and developed a robust curriculum for graduation and specialization courses. In this scenario, the creation of an instrument for public discussion and scientific dissemination seems mandatory⁵5 Mathias CM. O Pavilhão de Observação na psiquiatria do Distrito Federal: a gestão de Henrique Roxo (1921-1945) [dissertação]. Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Casa de Oswaldo Cruz; 2017..

Although it was not possible to find entries of all the sessions held since its foundation, CE has been occurring with regularity since 1951. During these 70-years, it was a scientific beacon for all academic purposes in IPUB, where the most relevant researches and communications were held and publicized for the university community.

2. Debated themes and presentations

During the entire period, four main types of meetings were found: “Thematic presentation”, “Bibliographic Reviews”, “Homage sessions” and “Clinical case”. The first was the most prevalent, with 316 entries, followed by 39 “Clinical case”, 29 “Homage sessions”, and 25 “bibliographic reviews”. “Thematic presentation” represents speeches about specific themes or research by invited professionals or by researchers from IPUB, UFRJ, or other academic instances. It still is the main type of CE presentation until nowadays⁶6 Deslandes A. Personal communication. 2021.. A clear prevalence of a thematic subject, in a specific time span, could not be identified in the list of the events, that could refer to a scientific shift in psychiatry. All decades have psychoanalysis/psychodynamic, biological and social scientific background presentations. The full list can be obtained in CE site, as a result of the present research.

Bibliographic reviews were a brief abstract of articles published in scientific journals selected by the organizers and may have represented the only access for regular students to such bibliography back in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Clinical case presentations were held by the students, but eventually by the main organizers themselves, usually with cases being followed in the inpatient settings. Late in the sixties, it is possible to observe a pattern so the case to be presented were sequentially presented by inpatient (male and female) and outpatient unity and its coordinators.

In the inner document from CE 1963 sessions⁷7 Lopes JL. Relatório Ano 1963. Rio de Janeiro; 1963., it is said that was expected that 2 sessions to be reserved for clinical cases, 1 for thematic presentation, and 1 for bibliographic reviews. Bibliographic reviews and clinical cases are no longer part of IPUB CE’s, but the exact time when it stopped was not found. In our interviews, an eyewitness said that in 1986 they were no longer part of the recurrent meetings⁸8 Cavalcanti MT. Personal communication. 2021.. In our documentation, both events are part of CE only in the ‘50s and ‘60s, but it does not mean that the activity was abandoned.

In a recent Ph.D. thesis, an eyewitness reported that Prof Leme Lopes waged a recurrent clinical session every week, long before 1986⁹9 Bezz SR. A apresentação de pacientes na transmissão da psicanalise e a formação profissional em saúde mental [tese]. Rio de Janeiro: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; 2021.. Also, in 1994, during João Ferreira’s tenure, clinical cases became recurrently exposed in an especial weekly meeting on Tuesdays, in the format that is still being held nowadays (MTC).

Homage sessions are a heterogeneous group, composed basically by commemorative sessions about institutional anniversaries, the memory of an important retired or deceased professor, and inauguration or celebration of an academic year’s start or ending. Sometimes those sessions were held together with a thematic presentation, but in the early years of CE seems to have been usual speeches from doctors that were students or friend of the honored.

CE was also the stage for some very relevant presentations and historical developments in Brazilian psychiatry. It was in CE that the idea of a national entity for psychiatry was conceived, resulting in the posterior foundation of the Brazilian Association of Psychiatry. It has been also a hub for the dissemination of international research about mental health in Brazil.

The first international speaker may have been G. Davi, from the neuropsychiatric research group of the medical research council in London, England. A note from “Diário de Notícias” on May 5th of 1961 invited the community for a lecture about “some issues in experimental psychiatry”¹⁰10 Centro de Estudos do Instituto de Psiquiatria da UB. Diário de Notícias. 1961 May 5. Available from: http://bndigital.bn.br/hemeroteca-digital/
http://bndigital.bn.br/hemeroteca-digita... . Lectures from international researchers or Brazilian doctors studying in foreign universities were relatively common, and nineteen entries were identified as foreign speechers in our research. Some of these lectures were administered in English¹⁰10 Centro de Estudos do Instituto de Psiquiatria da UB. Diário de Notícias. 1961 May 5. Available from: http://bndigital.bn.br/hemeroteca-digital/
http://bndigital.bn.br/hemeroteca-digita... , but probably also in Spanish and French. Among important speeches, we may cite Hagoup Akiskal, Thomas Ban, and Bruno Cerleti, among many other world-known psychiatric mentors (AEN).

Other entries are harder to categorize, but worth mention. It was obtained data from meetings aimed to describe congresses, symposiums, and foreign services visiting, usually held by the staff who attended it. There were 44 events about intern congress, symposiums, and forums held with CE as a basis, and at least since 1996 Ph.D. thesis and Master of Science essays were part of CE regular schedules⁸8 Cavalcanti MT. Personal communication. 2021.. Another eyewitness remembered that until 2014 these post-graduation events were recurrent (HRN), but it was not identified after 2017 when CE become restricted to Thematic presentation and few Homage sessions⁸8 Cavalcanti MT. Personal communication. 2021..

3. Periodicity and format changes

The first session of CE was held at the Institute amphitheater, today called “Henrique Roxo Amphitheater”. Back then, the sessions were held monthly, but in 1961 we found entries every two weeks, and in 1963 it became weekly. Today, and at least since 1982, CE is based in “Leme Lopes” auditorium⁸8 Cavalcanti MT. Personal communication. 2021..

It is not clear if there has ever been any access restriction, but journal notes seemed to be directed for physicians in the 50s. In the 1963 document it is explicitly stated that other health professionals as nurses, psychologists, and social workers were welcome for the sessions⁷7 Lopes JL. Relatório Ano 1963. Rio de Janeiro; 1963., and in 1964 such invitations were found in journal notes¹¹11 JB A. Reuniões. Jornal do Brasil. 1964 May 13. Available from: http://bndigital.bn.br/hemeroteca-digital/
http://bndigital.bn.br/hemeroteca-digita... . It could be argued if CE is a scientific dissemination event since its language is certainly not aimed at the lay public, but it seems to have been very accessible for all at least since 1963.

Since 2019, CE became integrated with the extension course “Connected Education in Mental Health and Psychiatry” (EPSAMP) and is part of the post-graduation courses in UFRJ⁶6 Deslandes A. Personal communication. 2021.. It also integrates the monthly events of the Brazilian University Web of Telemedicine, both as a content provider and consumer¹²12 Rede Universitária de Telemedicina [Internet]. [cited 2021 Feb 22]. Available from: https://rute.rnp.br/
https://rute.rnp.br/... . In the year 2020, with the COVID-19 outbreak, CE starts to be transmitted by EPSAMP YouTube channel by streaming, with a mean audience of 200 but reaching more than 500 in some events⁶6 Deslandes A. Personal communication. 2021.,¹³13 EPSAMP – IPUB/UFRJ – YouTube [Internet]. [cited 2021 Feb 22]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmbzpkpVj_l2YSM51ulZZ9A
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmbzpkp... .

CONCLUSION

In the last 70-years, CE developed from a local-based scientific meeting to a full, internationally web-based, free recurrent event of mental health information entity. During its meeting, some important events of Brazilian psychiatry were developed, and a relevant exchange of international experiences and research alliances was also held. In a period before the internet, the only access to field tendencies and scientific update for mental health professional were during these meetings, that were free and readily accessible for all the community.

It has also significantly contributed to the formation of many generations of mental health professionals and influenced directly the routes of Brazilian psychiatry practice, research, and organization. The Institute of Psychiatry is proud of such achievements from the Brazilian academy and celebrates its contributions for generations of mental health professionals.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to thanks Prof. Dr. Andrea Deslandes for the their valuable contributions.

REFERENCES

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