Entre os muros da loucura: descrição dos espaços do Hospital Escola Portugal Ramalho

Abstract

Insanity as a counterpoint of the reason is considered by society as something undesirable that should be condemned to social exclusion, as reflected in space with the creation of spatial configurations conducive to their isolation. It is in this universe that this research is inserted: where insanity and reason appear as a dichotomy, as opposed points of the same element that marks the interval between being prisoner and free. The interface between insanity and architecture within its context of complex system, raises a vast field of research opportunities that require attention to the two poles of the relationship: on one hand the insane, as social actors, and other space, as under their practices. This research is presented as a case study in the Hospital Escola Portugal Ramalho, a totalitarian institution where the object of analysis is the psychiatric hospital space, that, according repertoire studies, usually affects behaviors aiming at the reproduction of institutional intention. The objective is to describe the hospital space, from space humanization concepts, supported by discussion of the asylum system and practices, with the help of the theory of the social logic of space, Space Syntax. Thus, the spatial description of this hospital - which has come to be considered the second best in the country, which was the scene of the largest conventional psychiatric practices of torture, such as electroshock and isolation in cells, and now features a humanization speech -, seeks to show up within the walls of madness there for opening a space really humanized. Note: although it is set up as a representation or a reduction of reality, as the results presented refer to specific moments of observation of the researcher, this work seeks to move away from determinism to override the pre-established concepts of humanization of space to this reality, presenting itself as an abstraction that, although it cannot be taken as a definite, can guide similar situations in equivalent systems.