The crazy world of fiction

When we analyse the plots of Brazilian telenovelas since their inception, we come across an immense range of works that deal with madness, without, however, the theme deserving greater attention. The book that the reader has in his hands seeks to fill this gap. Starting from the concept of social representation and a historical retrospective, the author invites us to a walk through the evolution of the concept of mental health to demonstrate how the history of madness itself influences the way the theme is approached in the novels. Elaine also demonstrates, through the analysis of several examples, how certain representations are repeated over time and lists them in categories. As a methodological cut, it is proposed a more detailed analysis of the telenovela Caminho das Índias, which in 2009, proposed a different approach to that usually employed in teledramaturgy, by electing schizophrenia - the mental disorder most often associated with madness - as the focus of a social campaign and sought in a didactic way to present it to the public as a treatable disease.