Planning lunatic asylums and the production of man or how to produce and kill a woman (Hospital Psiquiátrico Pinel, São Paulo/1940)

Abstract

From studying written documents from the 1940s taken from the archives of the Pinel Psychiatric Hospital it is intended to reflect upon the social condition of the men and women who were interned there and the violence of every type that they suffered. Analysis of the practices and process of lunatic asylums from this period help us understand the present mental health service in São Paulo. The process will be discussed from a case involving the madness and death of a female patient.