“Defend Yourself from Madness”: Stigmatisation of Mental Illness in Mental Hygiene Literature in Latin America at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century (1920–1947)

From the beginning of the twentieth century to the 1960s in Latin America, psychiatric reforms were proposed to reconfigure the treatment of mental illness. Until the 1920s, confinement in the asylum was the only treatment offered, relatively introductory. The asylum, as a device, had been widely dispersed across the continent since the mid-nineteenth century. The foundations of these establishments openly declared a “fight” against various vices, including madness. In several countries of the region (Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, etc.), this type of initiative produced, in addition to a technical advance as far as possible, the configuration of social discourses and collective images about mental illness. Stigmatisation, therefore, was one of the strategies that combined mental conditions with social danger. The locked inmate was the object of education and domination within the asylum. Outside of it, there was a potential for dangerous people to be controlled: the prostitute, the alcoholic, street children, the poor, etc. Thus, the asylum offer was not enough and, precisely, as has been shown by different investigations (Campos & Ruperthuz, Higiene mental, psiquiatría y sociedad en Iberoamérica (1920–1960). Catarata, 2022; Ríos, Cómo prevenir la locura: Psiquiatría e higiene mental en México, 1934–1950. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 2016; Campos, Frenia. Revista de Historia de la Psiquiatría, 4(1), 101–111, 2004), they began to talk about the prevention of mental illness. Consequently, mental hygiene appeared on the scene. Following the American and French examples, Leagues and Associations were founded to begin fighting mental illness early. Psychologised versions of various problems occurred in the mass media, and the person with a mental health condition was an example of what should be socially avoided. In this context, this chapter will seek to expose what has happened in different Latin American countries (mainly Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil) regarding the social treatment of mental illness to project, from the past, images that survive until today (Goffman, Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. Prentice-Hall, 1963; Castel, The psychiatric society. Columbia University Press, 2009). From a historical perspective, this chapter relates to the transnational transport of the different psychopathological categories circulated through Latin American societies (Shamdasani & Loewenthal, Exploring transcultural histories of psychotherapies. Routledge, 2021). They configured clear examples of what was desirable in social terms. They defined social normality and abnormality as closely related to what was desirable regarding mental health. Psychological categories circulated as a legitimising element of political plans that placed the mind as a crucial variable within the tasks of the State. A temporary reconstruction will allow us to understand how this form of penetration, circulation, and validation of psychopathological discourses has repercussions in contemporary society.