Os processos de cura das “Doenças Psicológicas” nos Tratados Médicos Portugueses (fins do século XVII – início do XVIII)

Abstract

In recent decades, studies on the History of Medicine have become increasingly dynamic. Researchers' concerns are no longer limited to recording the institutional advances in the field but also encompass the cultural, economic, and social aspects that permeate it. In this context, through medical writings and documents, it is possible to observe how different societies —often separated by time — understood the human body and the prevailing social norms of their eras. Thus, the present study aims to analyze the perspective of Portuguese physicians between the late 17th and early 18th centuries regarding diseases related to the mind and human behavior. Additionally, it seeks to identify how these professionals combined chemical and humoral treatments for patients with psychological symptoms, as well as to understand how Portuguese society at the time perceived such diseases and their sufferers based on the medical discourse found in the treatises Polyanthea Medicinal (1697), Atalaya da vida contra as hostilidades da morte (1720), and Observações médicas doutrinais de cem casos gravíssimos (1707) by João Curvo Semedo; Materia Medica Physico-Historico-Mechanica (1735); Theorica Verdaira das Marés, conforme à Philosophia do incomparavel cavalheiro Isaac Newton (1737) by Jacob de Castro Sarmento; and Ancora Medicinal para conservar a vida com saúde (1731), Medicina Lusitana, and Socorro Délfico a os clamores da natureza humana, para total profligação de seus males (1710) by physician Francisco da Fonseca Henriques.