AIELLO-TSU, T. M. J. (1991) – Vício e Loucura: estudo de representações sociais de escolares sobre doença mental através do uso do Procedimento de Desenhos-Estórias com Tema [Addiction and Madness: a Study of Social Representations of Students about Mental Illness through the Use of the Thematic Drawing-and-Story Procedure]. São Paulo (SP), Boletim de Psicologia, 41 (94/95): 47-56.
The article presents the results of a research about social representations of mental illness of 36 students, who were submitted to Thematic Drawing-and-Story Procedure. For both sexes, the predominant theme is the use of drugs, seen as a basic etiological factor that results from the influence of bad companies and/or family troubles. Organic diseases and familiar problems are also appointed as causes of mental disturbance. The author thinks that the most frequent representations, specially the one of an addicted crazy person, are an expression of defense mechanisms against anxieties characteristic of adolescence, returning to childhood positions. It points out the need of help for the teenager and considers that the most common representations correspond to negative ideas that can have consequences in terms of the social reinsertion of the psychiatric patient.