Usos da ayahuasca e discursos sobre transtornos mentais na imprensa brasileira 1960-2010
Ciencias Sociales y Religión December 19, 2023 DOI: 10.20396/csr.v25i00.8671997 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Brazilian news reports on ayahuasca from the 1960s to 2020 |
| Topics | Ayahuasca |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key findings | Brazilian press coverage of ayahuasca shifted from negative associations with hallucination and madness to a focus on therapeutic potential, legitimizing the brew in recent decades. |
Abstract
Historically, ayahuasca has been associated in the press with “hallucination”, “drugs” and “madness”. However, the advancement of research on its “therapeutic potential” and the dissemination of results in the news raise the question, which is also a premise, whether there has been a transformation in the social meanings of the brew in a recent period. Here, the objective was to analyze the coverage of press vehicles in relation to the uses of ayahuasca and discourses on mental disorders. In terms of Latour, these press vehicles are fundamental ‘actors’ in a sociotechnical network of ayahuasca that integrates with other actors and with which it establishes ‘associations’ and ‘controversies’ in the public debate. An analysis was carried out of discourses on mental disorders related to the use of ayahuasca in reports by vehicles in Brazil, nationally and from the Amazon region, from the 1960s to 2020. These documents show changes in approach, in the narratives and grammars that have recently legitimized ayahuasca in comparison to previous decades.