(Re)inventing Lives

The aim of this book is to provide new reflections on the relationship between art, psychoanalysis and madness, moving them from the field of interpretation and the drive, to the field of relationship, thinking about the space for creation and invention of new ways for ’so-called mad’ subjects to live sustained in/by their history in the face of the encounter with art. The study was carried out with two residents who have been attending the Creativity Workshop at the São Pedro Psychiatric Hospital for over ten years, as well as four workshop workers who work there. In this way, through the journeys, encounters and reflections provided by this research, it was possible to understand art as a holding, because in the process of creating works of art, the subjects addressed sustain their stories and keep them alive and active in the process of inventing life and themselves.