Psychiatric-Social Analysis of Statism and the Popular Culture of State Dependence in Brazil

In contrast to the Northern Hemisphere’s constitutional rebellions—where strong men rose against tyrannies to build limited States—the Brazilian State emerged as a parasitic entity, shaped by elites that co-opted revolts to increase centralized power. This process inverted the logic of rebellion, mobilizing psychologically passive and dependent masses against the productive minority. This article analyzes the psychiatric, social, and political underpinnings of this phenomenon, framing it as a cultural pathology: the “rebellion of the passive.” Drawing on classical thinkers like Ortega y Gasset, Tocqueville, Pareto, and contemporary observations, the paper examines Brazil’s state-centered dependency culture, its ideological exportation of underdevelopment, and its growing antagonism to global innovation and freedom. It argues that Brazil, lacking in strategic competence and moral autonomy, became a disruptive actor by default — a giant by forfeit. The urgency of rebuilding a culture of personal responsibility, entrepreneurial liberty, and moral courage is discussed as the only path out of chronic sociopolitical regression.Brazil wants to be the leader of a certain “Global South” alongside Russia — but it lacks both military and scientific-technological strength.It currently lives under a statist/socialist regime sustained by censorship and a judiciary dictatorship, which has been acting against social media platforms and technology companies.Behind this is a socialist leadership that pits the poorest and least educated segments of the population against the “elites,” who are themselves fed by the socialist State. This corrupt State selects large corporations to extract money from them for its populist electoral campaigns and/or for benefits granted to the ruling elite.The Iberian-Mediterranean-Southern-Muslim pragmatism places higher value on family, friends, and close relations (e.g., “compadre”), and in doing so devalues what is communal and social, thereby fostering corruption.Corresponding author e-mail: psychological.medicine1@gmail.comAvailable as preprint at Zenodo.org