[For the good of the nation's economy: therapeutic work and public assistance at La Castañeda asylum in Mexico City, 1929-32].
Founded in 1910, by 1930 Mexico City's La Castañeda insane asylum was grappling with the problem of a massive number of chronic patients, a situation that earned it an image as a warehouse for the sick more than a place of treatment. Psychiatrists endeavored to restore the asylum's legitimacy by publicizing a nineteenth-century treatment which projected the public image that the mentally ill could be as productive as anyone else: work therapy. The government born of the Mexican revolution supported this proposal because the guiding objective behind public assistance for underprivileged groups was to make them part of the country's productive life via the market.
Sacristán
Cristina
C
Instituto Dr. José María Luis Mora (Instituto Mora), Plaza Valentín Gómez Farías no. 12, Colonia San Juan Mixcoac 03730, México, Distrito Federal, México. csacristan@mora.edu.mx
D049673:History, 20th Century; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric / Q000266:history*; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000266:history* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D008800:Mexico; D011632:Public Assistance / Q000266:history; D012050:Rehabilitation, Vocational / Q000266:history*