When suffering becomes indiscipline: anxiety, depression, and the punitive grammar of schooling
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1590/SciELOPreprints.17292Keywords:
Student mental health, School discipline, Stigma, School belonging, Psychosocial careAbstract
This article examines how manifestations of psychological distress among students may be interpreted by schools as indiscipline, disengagement, or moral inadequacy. It is a bibliographic and theoretical-conceptual study grounded in epidemiological data, empirical research, and national and international policy documents. The analytical pathway comprises three movements: outlining the contemporary landscape of student mental health; reconstructing the categories of discipline, stigma, recognition, belonging, and school connectedness; and developing the category of punitive school grammar. The article argues that anxiety, depression, self-harm, and other manifestations of distress have multiple determinants and cannot be causally attributed to schools. Its central thesis is that punitive grammar shapes the institutional intelligibility of suffering through four interdependent operations: the moralization of signs, disciplinary classification, the stigmatizing fixation of identity, and exclusion from learning opportunities and school relationships. These operations may obscure care needs, intensify shame and helplessness, and weaken students’ sense of belonging. As a contribution to Brazilian educational research, the article proposes an analytical matrix for investigating the relationships among mental health, disciplinary records, inequalities, and school continuity, as well as an agenda for empirical studies aligned with the Brazilian National Policy for Psychosocial Care in School Communities.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Tiago Eurico de Lacerda, André Martini

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