Abstract

In the midst of the Civil War in Chile in 1891, the Brazilian newspaper Diario de Campinas published an article entitled "Balmaceda," by Joaquim Nogueira de Sa Itagiba, which analyzes the delirium of Chilean politician Jose Manuel Balmaceda, president of the Republic from 1886 to 1891 in order to explain his behavior, which it defines as characteristic of a dictator and a tyrant. The article makes liberal use of various psychiatric theories that sought to identify the criminal subject in response to ideals of social normalization. The article was part of the book La prensa extranjera y la dictadura chilena, by Alberto Fagalde, published in 1891, in Chile.