Usos da ayahuasca e discursos sobre transtornos mentais na imprensa brasileira 1960-2010

Historically, Brazilian news media associated ayahuasca with hallucination, drugs, and madness, but recent coverage increasingly highlights its therapeutic potential, reflecting a transformation in the brew's social meanings. Analyzing reports from national and Amazon-region Brazilian press from the 1960s to 2020, the study finds changes in narratives and grammars that have recently legitimized ayahuasca compared to earlier decades. Drawing on Latour's framework, the press acts as a key actor in a sociotechnical network, shaping public discourse through associations and controversies around ayahuasca and mental disorders.

Study at a glance

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.