Discursos e imágenes sobre la desigualdad. Políticas públicas e institucionalización de la locura en el noroeste argentino (1935-1954) / Discourses and images on inequality. Public policy and institutionalization of madness in the argentinean northwest (1935-1954)

En la presente investigación analizaremos la primera institución psiquiátrica del noroeste argentino, específicamente en la provincia de Tucumán, el Hospital de Alienados (HA), desde el evento que impulsó su creación -la negativa de traslados interprovinciales de pacientes a colonias nacionales en 1935- hasta el retorno a dicha práctica por parte del Estado nacional -en 1954-. Hasta la creación del HA, las posibles respuestas para las personas con problemáticas psiquiátricas eran el traslado a instituciones en otras provincias o el encierro en un asilo de la ciudad y en establecimientos policiales. Ante las graves consecuencias de las últimas alternativas, y la cancelación de los traslados, tuvo que ser el propio Estado provincial el que hiciera frente a la problemática. El HA se constituyó como el primero en Argentina en pertenecer a un Estado provincial y no depender de las arcas nacionales. Este trabajo inaugural en los estudios historiográficos de la región nos permitirá analizar algunos procesos institucionales de las políticas en salud mental a nivel provincial y nacional, las concepciones sobre locura y encierro que se sostenían en aquella época, el flagelo de la pobreza como causa para enloquecer y el efecto de todo lo anterior en la opinión pública.(AU)

In the present investigation we will analyze the first psychiatric institution in northwestern Argentina, specifically in the province of Tucumán, the Hospital de Alienados (HA), from the event that prompted its creation -the refusal of interprovincial transfers of patients to national colonies in 1935- until the return to this practice by the national State -in 1954-Until the creation of the HA, the possible responses for people with psychiatric problems were transfer to institutions in other provinces or confinement in a city asylum and in police establishments. Given the serious consequences of the last alternatives, and the cancellation of the transfers, it had to be the provincial State itself that faced the problem. The HA was established as the first in Argentina to belong to a provincial State and not depend on the national coffers. This inaugural work in the historiographical studies of the region will allow us to analyze some institutional processes of mental health policies at the provincial and national level, the conceptions about madness and confinement that were held at that time, the scourge of poverty as a cause of craziness, and the effect of all of the above on public opinion.(AU)

The BJPsych: from asylum to psychiatry by dint of mental science.

After thanking his predecessors, the newly appointed College Editor and Editor-in-Chief of The British Journal of Psychiatry, Professor Gin Malhi, outlines both the historical and personal significance of the journal in this proemial editorial.

The psychopathic hospital.

A new psychiatric institution emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: the psychopathic hospital. This institution represented a significant development in the history of psychiatry, as it marked the profession's reorientation from asylum-based to hospital-based care, and in this way presaged the deinstitutionalization movement that would begin half a century later. Psychopathic hospitals were also an important marker of psychiatry's efforts to redefine its professional boundaries and respond to its vociferous critics. This entailed both a rapprochement with general medicine in an effort to assert its scientific bona fides and a redefinition of its scope of practice to absorb non-certifiable 'borderland' cases in order both to emphasize non-coercive treatment and to enlarge the profession's boundaries.

Workhouse or asylum? Accommodating pauper lunatics in nineteenth-century England.

The late eighteenth and early nineteenth century witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of pauper lunatics being admitted to institutions and many mentally-ill paupers found their way into workhouses. The range of options existing for the admission of paupers, who at the time were described as lunatics or insane, included private madhouses, charitable asylums, public asylums as well as workhouses. Legislation relating to transfer from a workhouse to a one of these other institutions was ambiguous and depended on the concept of dangerousness and whether a workhouse inmate was manageable, rather than the nature of their illness. Because demand exceeded the space available because of overcrowding, workhouses and public asylums continually needed to increase provision by means of converting existing facilities or erecting new buildings. Nevertheless, the transfer of patients between asylums was commonplace and extensive. This article will explore the interface between two urban workhouses in the West Midlands of England and their local asylums from the late eighteenth until the end of the nineteenth century. It will demonstrate that, although local circumstances at any one time may have contributed to decisions on transfer, the overriding difficulty in the correct placement of pauper lunatics throughout the time period was institutional overcrowding, mainly driven by the increasing numbers of pauper lunatics.

[Classifying the women: psychiatric diagnoses and female subjectivity in the Manicomio Provincial de Málaga, Spain, 1909-1950]. / Clasificando mujeres: diagnósticos psiquiátricos y subjetividad femenina en el Manicomio Provincial de Málaga, España, 1909-1950.

The clinical histories of women's asylums allow us to deepen the gap between the positivist illusion of psychiatry during the first half of the 20th century in Spain and the subjective experience of the psychiatric internment of doubly subaltern crazy women. Diagnostic classifications were key in this attempt at positivization. This paper aims to point out which subjectifying elements participated in the application of diagnoses such as schizophrenia, psychopathy, and oligophrenia in the women's wards of the Manicomio Provincial de Málaga, and to show how the hegemonic ideal of femininity established a permeable limit between sanity and madness of women, between assimilations and resistances.

Las historias clínicas de manicomios de mujeres permiten ahondar en la brecha que se abre entre la ilusión positivista de la psiquiatría durante la primera mitad del siglo XX en España y la vivencia subjetiva del internamiento psiquiátrico de las mujeres-locas doblemente subalternas. Las clasificaciones diagnósticas fueron claves en este intento de positivización. El objetivo de este trabajo es señalar qué elementos subjetivantes participaron en la aplicación de diagnósticos como esquizofrenia, psicopatía y oligofrenia en la sala de mujeres del Manicomio Provincial de Málaga, y mostrar cómo el ideal hegemónico de feminidad estableció un límite permeable entre la cordura y la locura de las mujeres, entre asimilaciones y resistencias.

'Picture imperfect': the motives and uses of patient photography in the asylum.

In the nineteenth century, photography became common in psychiatric asylums. Although patient photographs were produced in large numbers, their original purpose and use are unclear. Journals, newspaper archives and Medical Superintendents' notes from the period 1845-1920 were analysed to understand the reasons behind the practice. This revealed: (1) empathic motivation: using photography to understand the mental condition and aid treatment; (2) therapeutic focus on biological processes: using photography to detect biological pathologies or phenotypes; and (3) eugenics: using photography to recognise hereditary insanity, aimed at preventing transmission to future generations. This reveals a conceptual move from empathic intentions and psychosocial understandings to largely biological and genetic explanations, providing context for contemporary psychiatry and the study of heredity.

George Stephen Penny (1885-1964): his life and medical encounters before, during and after admission to Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.

Amid extensive press coverage, George Stephen Penny (1885-1964) was tried for murder in 1923. He was found 'guilty but insane' due to 'confusional insanity' associated with malaria which he suffered during World War I. Penny was admitted to Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum at a time of great public concern about inadequate and cruel care in mental institutions, but he was treated with humanity and respect. Penny's story also reveals much about challenges of psychiatric diagnosis and the relationships between crime, insanity, the public, lawyers and the medical profession. Following discharge from Broadmoor, Penny built himself a life in the community. His pseudonymous memoir, with masterly concealment of his identity and crime, tells his story up to 1925.

Montagu Lomax: The background and motivation of a 'remarkable man' who spearheaded lunacy reform.

Doctor Montagu Lomax was a retired General Practioner, whose service in English lunatic asylums during the First World War inspired him to write The experiences of an asylum doctor: with suggestions for asylum and lunacy law reform. Published in 1921, the book acted as a catalyst for lunacy reform and stimulated improvements in the mental health services in the United Kingdom. Lomax spent the remainder of his retirement campaigning for lunacy reform. He suffered financial and personal hardship following the publication of the book and was castigated by his own profession. On the centenary of the publication of Experiences, this article explores the background and motivation of a remarkable man.

Vehement Experiences: The Inscription and Description of Delusion in Nineteenth-century French Asylums.

This essay explores the differences in the narrative forms of mental illness, depending on whether the sources consulted come from published medical histories or archival material. Based on the study of dozens of clinical cases contained in, above all, the institutions of Charenton and Bicêtre, from the late eighteenth century to the 1850s, I argue that the distinctive feature of the clinical case was vehemence rather than delirium. My methodological approach is based on the conceptualization of the forms of experience proposed by the philosopher of history Reinhart Koselleck.

Psychiatric treatment of female mental patients in the Federated Malay States (FMS) of British-Malaya, 1930-57.

The British government in Malaya conducted treatment for women suffering mental illness in an effort to deal with the increasing number of cases in the Federated Malay States in 1930-57. This paper explores the role of mental asylums and society in contributing to methods of treatment during the twentieth century.

O Asilo e a Cidade: História da Assistência Psiquiátrica na Colônia Juliano Moreira

No dia 04 de maio de 2021, a professora e pesquisadora Ana Teresa A. Venancio foi recebida pelo canal “Me conta essa história” (YouTube) para conversar sobre O Asilo e a Cidade: História da Assistência Psiquiátrica na Colônia Juliano Moreira. Ela é uma das autoras e co-organizadora do livro homônimo (Ed. Garamond, 2015), juntamente com Gisélia Potengy.

Criação do IPUB sob a ótica de Henrique Roxo

Este vídeo busca narrar a história do Instituto de Psiquiatria da Universidade do Brasil (IPUB), inaugurado em fins dos anos 1930. Expondo muitas fotos de época, mostra como o ensino de psiquiatria, no Rio de Janeiro, esteve atrelado à instituição asilar até a criação do IPUB. Contribui, fortemente, pela riqueza de informações sobre a trajetória de um dos psiquiatras brasileiros mais importantes do século XX, Henrique Roxo, indicando sua ênfase numa psiquiatria de cunho biologicista à frente do IPUB em meados do século XX

História, loucura e memória: o acervo do hospital psiquiátrico Juliano Moreira

Informado pelos ideais dos movimentos sociais antimanicomiais e da reforma psiquiátrica, retrata a história do hospital psiquiátrico Juliano Moreira (fundado em 1937), na cidade de Belém do Pará. Com muitas fotografias, traz depoimentos de médicos e funcionários que reformaram o caráter da instituição, sobretudo a partir dos anos 1970 e 1980. Mostra as transformações no campo da saúde mental no Pará, a importância do enfoque da terapia ocupacional e da educação, o remodelamento da assistência em saúde mental com os CAPS e versa sobre a preservação documental na área.

Colônia Juliano Moreira

Matéria especial feita pelo repórter Samuel Wainer e o repórter cinematográfico Johnson Gouvêa para o programa Fantástico, da Rede Globo de Televisão, sobre a Colônia Juliano Moreira, em 1980. Eles percorreram toda a colônia durante cinco dias, registrando imagens que denunciavam a condição degradante em que os pacientes se encontravam – falta de médicos, maus tratos, instalações precárias, entre outros.

Colônia Juliano Moreira - 80 anos

Vídeo sobre a história da Colônia Juliano Moreira desde sua criação, em 1924, até 2004, abordando as transformações em relação aos conceitos psiquiátricos, aos tratamento dos pacientes e às políticas de saúde pelas quais instituição passou.

Relaying station for empires' outcasts: managing 'lunatics' in pre-World War II Hong Kong.

This article explores how 'lunatics' emerged and how they were managed beyond the capacity of institutionalization in colonial Hong Kong in the second half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. The story contests the conventional historiography about madmen that focuses on institutions. Unlike in Britain or in other East Asian colonial cities, inpatients stayed at the asylum only for very short periods. Instead of psychiatric admission, they were then transported by ship, either to Canton in China or to London for further care until after World War II. This article analyses how this was done to maintain a 'clean' cityscape, as well as an instrument to ensure the smooth operation of the port city.

Gustav Nikolaus Specht (1860­1940): psychiatric practice, research and teaching during a change of psychiatric paradigm before and after Kraepelin.

Gustav Specht (1860-1940) developed academic psychiatry in Erlangen. After studying medicine in Würzburg, Munich and Berlin, he became assistant medical director in the mental asylum of Erlangen. In 1897 he was appointed extraordinary, and in 1903 ordinary, Professor of Psychiatry. A good clinician and teacher, Specht worked during a time of paradigm change in psychiatry. He was an expert in chronic mania, and introduced the concept of the 'grumbler's delusion'. Paranoia he believed to be the core problem of psychopathology and considered the depressive syndrome as an 'exogenous-type' of reaction. For him, trauma was important in the genesis of mental illness, and his 'hystero-melancholy' anticipated the concept of borderline personality disorder.

What faces reveal: Hugh Diamond's photographic representations of mental illness.

Hugh Diamond was a psychiatrist, antiquarian, and photographer, who was the first person to take photographs of female asylum patients. These photographs, using the newly invented technology of the camera, were intended to be objective and accurate visual indicators of mental illness. Considering Diamond's overlapping interests, his project must be understood within the larger cultural and historical context and the tensions inherent in medical photography and portraiture. Despite the goal of capturing "objective, scientific data," the photographs instead relied on traditional iconography dating back to the Greeks and Middle Ages and can be analyzed from an art historical perspective. As an antiquarian, Diamond collected portraits of his patients just as he collected various other objects. As such, while Diamond may be considered a humanistic leader of the moral treatment movement, his work in capturing these "specimens," the female patients, reflects a perpetuation of the stigmatization of mental illness to be put on display for the Victorian audience.