Now this was a good mind-f**k !
First published in 1882, ‘The Alienist’ by Machado de Assis is a darkly hilarious satire about Simão Bacamarte, a psychiatrist trying to understand the nature of mental illness and admitting half the town to his newly established madhouse – the Green House.
Set in Itaguaí, a small Brazilian town, ‘The Alienist’ is fast-paced, frenzied, and introduces Bacamarte as a highly respected physician who wants to make giant strides in the study of mental illness. His ‘Green House’ is the region’s first dedicated institution meant to house those insane, and his decision is initially met with a lot of skepticism. People obviously think putting multiple mad people under the same roof is madness.
But how does Bacamarte decide who is mad and who isn’t?
By being super abstract, even though he thinks he is being meticulous with his research over what makes someone abnormal.
Bacamarte keeps coming up with the wacky theories and approaches to classify people into different categories, to a point that he decides being too ‘balanced’ is a symptom of madness too. Needless to say, anybody with an excessive affinity towards something is also declared and committed to the Green House.
Soon, almost everybody in Itaguaí becomes afraid of the the alienist (it’s an outdated term for psychiatrist) and protests erupt against Bacamarte, with some claiming he arbitrarily throws people in the Green House for funds, since the local administration pays for its upkeep. However, several little twists keep Itaguaí is a love-and-hate relationship with the Alienist, one day he is an evil villain ruining families, other days he is a pioneer truly interested in helping the mentally insane.
In many ways, Simão Bacamarte serves as an excellent parallel for charismatic dictators. In ‘The Alienist’, the realm of mental health is his exclusive domain. Nobody in Itaguaí has any authority or expertise on the human mind, and thus they have no option but to simply accept whatever he says on the matter. He gets to proclaim who is mad and who isn’t, and nobody is qualified to challenge his judgment.
The most the people can do is rebel and hope to remove him from his position of power, without ever needing to understand his domain themselves. In much the same way, revolutions or rebellions led by ordinary people can topple regimes without the rebels necessarily knowing anything about governance. They don’t need to understand how to wield that power to recognize when someone is abusing it.
In Bacamarte’s defense, he certainly does not misuse his position, but isn’t as scholarly as he deems himself to be. Which then raises questions about what happens when ‘experts’ aren’t really as capable as they’re made out to be? The climax of the story is darkly comical and even though I sort of expected that ending, it’s wickedly good for a satire that came out in the 19th century.
‘The Alienist’ is a small novella, almost short story sized, but offers a whole world to unpack, even after so many years. But my favorite takeaways are these – one can never trust people in power to make the right decision for you. And that maybe everybody is a little bit insane.
Also Read: Babel Book Review: A Rather Convenient Revolution
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