O Asylo de São João de Deos: as faces da loucura

Abstract

In June 24, 1874, the city of Salvador woke up with an important commitment it was the day of the opening of the Asylum of St. John of God . For many years, the situation was at a standstill. After all, why all that interest in it? What did that spot, that place, mean for Tomé de Sousa's city? The aim of this text is to understand that moment in the life of the city. What did that space of medical power, of control of the deviates and degenerates, mean for the administration of urban daily life? It is our endeavour to understand that process through men and their histories, found in the street, in the School of Medicine, in the churches, in the warehouses, alleys and slopes. This work has the commitment to discussing the concept of "medicalization", so evidenced by many, from the theories developed in Europe, the autochthonous medical texts, the practices implemented in the asylum, the progress and the mistakes made. Stories lived in the heat of the moment, in the sultriness of the slow days of 19th century Salvador