Madhouse or prisoners house? Nursing in judicial asylum

Abstract

The forensic psychiatric hospitals have objective to safeguard and treat mental patients, with a fusion between hospital and prison. Use techniques and disciplinary procedures normalizing criminally insane. The research studies the disciplinary measures used by nursing professionals working at Instituto Psiquiátrico Forense, Porto Alegre, Brazil. The theoretical framework lies in the field of cultural studies, post-structuralist strand, inspired by Michael Foucault notions. Ethnographic reswearch instruments were used: interviews recorded in audio, observation, analysis of documents and images. The results were organized in units: Madhouse or house of prisoners?; The organization of spaces and The control of time. In this institution, nursing carries the prison system heritage, manifested in daily routines. The way of caring, naturalized over time, produces professionals who repeat teachings of jailers, “transforming” patients in what is a normative proposal of the institution: organize it and readjust it according to rules of social life.