A emergência da cura pela palavra na medicina mental do século XIX

this paper analyses the conditions present for the emergence of the talking cure as one among other medical therapies in the late 19th century. the hypothesis is that the construction of the psychism as a medical object is related to the emergence of medical categories for symptoms that seem to have no anatomical basis, such as neurasthenia, hysteria and psychosthenia. these categories helped show that purely organic explanations were insufficient to explain many symptoms. they therefore contributed to the establishment up a new style of clinical treatment based on speech.