excerpt

Power is configured through absolutism, enigma, and knowledge, which establishes an identity between authority and reason, whose function is to make necessary the acts of power.


synopsis

In this book the author isolates the masks of power and specifies their tricks. In order to do so, she examines its means of functioning in religion, in the psychiatric hospital, and in the process of initiation. This is done through five essays and across three countries. “Diabolavida” [Devillife], “O transe ou a metonímia do poder” [The Trance, or the Metonymy of Power], and “O culto memorial dos ancestrais” [The Memory Cult of Ancestors] are Brazilian studies; “Fatalício, a desventura das raízes ou o desengano

do manicômio”[Fatalício, Misfortune from the Roots or the Disillusionment of the Asylum] deals with a case that occurred in France; and “O poder ou a promessa de si mesmo” [Power, or Its Own Promise] addresses the process of initiation directed by a sorcerer in Mexico. The texts make clear that the operation of power utilizes a variety of tactics. But the identity established between power, punishment, interdiction, and censure blinds us to the surreptitious way in which power acts upon us, rendering it elusive and unpredictable. Betty Milan demonstrates that power is furtive and must be unmasked.


history

This is a book written by an apprentice tourist who traveled around Brazil personally experiencing firsthand situations that she then analyzed. The author completed her approach to the question of power through readings in a clinical dossier and the account of an initiation ritual. The work was published by Editora Ática in 1979 and is currently out of print. The text is part of the Trilogia psi [Psi Trilogy], as yet unpublished but available on this site as part of the author’s Selected Works.


opinion

“The importance of Manhas do poder is undeniable for the debate it can generate and for the ingenuity with which is was constructed.”
Haquira Osakabe, O Estado de S. Paulo, June 9, 1979

“The word of the university professor, the word of the factory owner may be other areas that Manhas do poder will help to clarify.”
Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, IstoÉ, June 13, 1979


areas of interest

Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, for its analysis of the relationships of power.


critical reaction

(see Portuguese version)


access text

(see Portuguese version)