Fabio Luz e os processos psicossociais: projeto de educação libertária (1888-1938)

Abstract

The primary objective of this study is to investigate the pivotal role played by Fábio Luz (1864 1938) in the history of Brazilian Education. The research highlights that the most significant contribution within the body of work of Fábio Luz, a renowned figure in the anarchist movementlies in the realm of libertarian education. This process began with his 1888 medical thesis, “Hypnotismo e Livre Arbitrio” (Hypnotism and Free Will), presented to the Faculty of Medicine of Bahia. His work addresses social categories crucial to the social fabric: workers, women, and children. We hypothesize that education in Fábio Luz’s work is infused with concepts from social psychology. We aim to fill gaps in existing biographies of Fábio Luz, treating him as an intellectual, educator, and thinker concerned with social issues such as unemployment and ethnic-racial inequality. His novels, novellas, short stories, and pamphlets are rich in social criticism and are geared toward political activism and professional engagement with the working class. We emphasize that his activities unfolded amid conflicts with other intellectuals dynamics best understood through the concepts of "social field" and "habitus" developed in Pierre Bourdieu's theory (1864-1938). We present the Faculty of Medicine of Bahia through the lens of progressive education grounded in innovations from German philosophy and highlight the factors that shaped the medical profession in Brazil. Consequently, the study of psychiatry shifted from a neuropsychiatric focus toward social psychology. Fábio Luz’s writings on the working class enable analysis of this demographic along the Rio-São Paulo axis, particularly in the context of anarcho-socialist social movements. The lives of these workers underscore the importance of Fábio Luz’s social novels within the framework of modernity in First Republic Brazil. To address this concept, we draw upon Weberian studies regarding social action and the Protestant ethic of capitalism. About women, Fábio Luz even without having the standing to speak on the issue- writes about female freedom, expressing views closely aligned with the contemporary feminist movement. Fábio Luz’s work treats the child as an autonomous social category capable of thinking, feeling, and reacting. By the time Fábio Luz published his schoolbooks (between 1911 and 1917), children's narratives already showed a certain level of care, yet the texts lacked a secular approach; Fábio Luz pioneered this secular perspective during that specific period. This study is grounded in biographical and theoretical research with document analysis, drawing primarily on primary sources such as Fábio Luz’s books and pamphlets. From the perspective of the history of education, the research reveals that Dr. Fábio Luz’s libertarian education project shaped by the social processes he engaged in as a school inspector, physician, and activist in Rio de Janeiro (then the Federal Capital) constitutes a key element of a pedagogical era capable of bridging the gap between the Pombaline Period (1759-1872) and the “Escola Nova” (New Education) movement (1932)