Displacement and isolation. Mental illness in the city of Medellín. 1878-1930

• Published in: Asclepio Vol. 60; no. 2; p. 119
• Main Author: Casas Orrego, A L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Spain 01.07.2008
• Subjects: Colombia - ethnology; Displacement (Psychology); History, 19th Century; History, 20th Century; Hospitals, Psychiatric - economics; Hospitals, Psychiatric - history; Mental Disorders - economics; Mental Disorders - ethnology; Mental Disorders - history; Mental Disorders - psychology; Mental Healing - history; Mental Healing - psychology; Mental Health Services - economics; Mental Health Services - history; Social Alienation - psychology; Social Isolation - psychology; Urban Health - history; Urban Population - history; Colombia
• ISSN: 0210-4466

The observation in the city of Medellín within the framework of urban history generated a surprising picture of subjects in hygiene and public health, among which we found the case of mental illness and the control systems proposed by civilian authorities and doctors. In Medellín, between 1880 and 1950, the modernization process went on, turning its pole of attraction on population displacements to the interior of the province of Antioch. As a result of Railroad I, there was a massive mobility of population from the neighboring towns, including some mentally ill people. At the end of the 19th century, the authorities created a house of asylum for these people, which became the Mental Hospital in the middle of the 20th century. The isolation of the mentally ill people reports both medical authority and the beginning of the constitution process and institutionalization of the psychopathology and medicalization of mental disease in Antioquia at the beginning of the 20th century.