História pública e o Hospital Colônia de Barbacena (MG): imprensa escrita, documentário e narrativas do Museu da Loucura (1979-1996)

Abstract

This research aims to analyze written and audiovisual press narratives published in Minas Gerais between the 1970s and 1980s during psychiatric reform process. The main objective of this study is centered on research into the construction of population's vision based on newspaper reports and also documentary "In the name of reason" (1979). The sources are set in Minas Gerais psychiatric hospitals that were part of the so-called public itinerary of madness, a term that appears in some reports to refer to circulation of patients between three institutions: Galba Velloso hospital, Raul Soares institute and Colônia de Barbacena hospital. In this way, the time frame adopted in this study corresponds to period of increase in the number of reports that had as their central theme the discussion regarding to the psychiatric situation in the state and its public hospital institutions. The question that permeated this study and served as a guide is centered on motivations that led Minas Gerais government to grant the necessary authorization for the press with justification of the need to raise awareness. The methodology used came from bibliographical research and analysis of the written and visual press. Despite the different materialities, they all converge on the same common point: the Colônia Hospital.