The Psychiatrist and Other Stories

The Psychiatrist and Other Stories presents a compelling collection of tales by Machado de Assis, Brazil’s literary master of psychological depth and ironic wit. Best known for his novels Dom Casmurro and Epitaph of a Small Winner, Machado’s short stories, as critics have noted, distill his artistry into compact narratives of profound insight. This volume offers English-speaking readers a rich sampling of his ability to explore human frailty, social absurdities, and the blurred boundaries between reason and madness. With a style that suggests more than it states, Machado’s work has been compared to Pascal’s meditations on human folly, Swift’s biting satire, and even Kierkegaard’s existential critiques, reinforcing his place among the great literary minds of modernity. The title story, The Psychiatrist, serves as a prime example of Machado’s deft critique of rigid rationalism and scientific absolutism. Dr. Bacamarte, in his obsessive quest to define and cure madness, ultimately calls into question the very nature of sanity itself. Other stories in the collection, such as Midnight Mass and Education of a Stuffed Shirt, reflect Machado’s fascination with human hypocrisy, unspoken desires, and the subtle power of social expectations. Whether through political satire, psychological realism, or philosophical inquiry, Machado de Assis masterfully exposes the tensions between individual identity and societal norms, making these stories as relevant today as they were in nineteenth-century Brazil. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1963.