“The Pilgrim Predestined and His Brother Reprobate”: Jesuit Formative Paths in the Seventeenth Century

The article analyzes the allegorical Brazilian novel História do Predestinado peregrino e de seu irmão Precito (The story of the pilgrim Predestined and his brother Reprobate) (1682) in the light of the history of psychological knowledge. The novel’s author, Alexandre de Gusmão (1695–1753), was an important member of the Society of Jesus in Brazil who became the director of Jesuit schools in the region. The article shows that the novel proposes a link between the psychological and spiritual dimensions, a link necessary for health and decisive in the healing of mental disorders. The role of psychological dynamism depends on the choice of an appropriate target or, in other words, on appetites being directed toward an appropriate object.

Publisher: Brill