Processo de institucionalização da loucura em Alagoas: as circunstâncias de criação e consolidação do Hospital Colônia Dr. Portugal Ramalho (1951 – 1970)

Abstract

This is a historical-social study that aims to describe the context of mental health in Alagoas in the mid-20th century, analyze the circumstances of the Creation of the Hospital Colônia Dr. Portugal Ramalho and analyze its consolidation for the institutionalization of madness in Alagoas . The social and temporal focus was the state of Alagoas, in the period between 1951 and the 1970s, with the inauguration of the hospital itself as the initial milestone and the effervescence of the first movements around the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform as the final milestone. The dissertation finds theoretical support in the ideas of Michel Foucault, based on the perspective of thinking about madness from the examination of history and the evolution of its concept as a construct belonging to a society and a time. The direct sources are made up of documents archived in the Alagoas Public Archive and in the archive of the now Hospital Escola Portugal Ramalho – HEPR, in addition to documents found through online access to the National Library's digital newspaper library. As for indirect sources, they are made up of articles, dissertations, theses, books and other works of consultation on the topic that were identified in the revisit process. In order to move towards elucidating the object of study, the sources were triangulated with the historical context, theoretical options and research hypothesis. The dissertation points to a scenario of antecedents that made up the plot conducive to the creation of the Hospital Colônia, namely: profound negligence in the only institution for the alienated that existed until that moment – the Asylo de Santa Leopoldina, financial incentives to improve health care mental and political games. Regarding the latter, it can be said that the institutionalization of madness in Alagoas was always intertwined with this process, sometimes being directly influenced, sometimes serving as the materialization and shape of the actors at a given time. In this study, the narrative of the understanding of the different moments experienced by Hospital Colônia Portugal Ramalho is constructed, going from its inauguration and first decade of operation to the consolidation of the historical portrait of its era of greater visibility, passing through the historical and political context that it even overlapped the day-to-day details of the institution in its assistance and administrative aspects.