Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. xi, 319 pages : illustrations, portraits; 23 cm.

Summary

1. "Madness in Buenos Aires examines the interactions between psychiatrists, patients and their families, and the national state in modern Argentina. This book offers a fresh interpretation of the Argentine state's relationship to modernity and social change during the twentieth century, while also examining the often contentious place of psychiatry in modern Argentina." "Drawing on a number of previously untapped archival sources, author Jonathan Ablard uses the experience of psychiatric patients as a case study of how the Argentine state developed and functioned over the last century and of how Argentines interacted with it. Ablard argues that the capacity of the state to provide social services and professional opportunities and to control the populace was often constrained to an extent not previously recognized in scholarly literature. These limitations, including a shortage of hospitals, insufficient budgets, and political and economic instability, shaped the experiences of patients, their families, and doctors and also influenced medical and lay ideas about the nature and significance of mental illness. Furthermore, these experiences, and the institutional framework in which they were imbedded, had a profound impact on how Argentine psychiatrists discussed not only mental illness but also a host of related themes including immigration, poverty, and the role of the state in mitigating social problems."--BOOK JACKET.

Series statement

1. Research in international studies. Latin America series ; no. 47
2. Latin American and Caribbean series, 1498-2366 ; 5

Uniform title

1. Latin American and Caribbean series ; no. 5.
2. Research in international studies. Latin America series ; no. 47.

Subject

1. Argentine > Conditions sociales
2. Argentine > Politique et gouvernement
3. Santé mentale > Politique gouvernementale > Argentine > Histoire
4. Mental health policy > Argentina > History
5. Maladies mentales > Argentine > Histoire
6. Psychiatry > Argentina > History
7. Psychiatrie > Argentine > Histoire
8. Argentina > Politics and government
9. Mental health services > Argentina > History
10. Argentina > Social conditions
11. Mental illness > Argentina > History
12. Santé mentale, Services de > Argentine > Histoire

Contents

1. 1. Introduction -- 2. Foundations, Myths, and Institutions -- 3. Innovation and Crisis -- 4. Ambiguous Spaces: Law, Medicine, Psychiatry, and the Hospitals, 1900-1946 -- 5. Pathways to the Asylum: 1900-1946 -- 6. From Peron to the Proceso: Authoritarianism, Democracy, and Psychiatric Reform, 1943-83 -- 7. Conclusion: Social Control in a Weak State.

Owning institution

1. Columbia University Libraries

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (p. 285-308) and index.