2001/08/01 by Cristina Rivera-Garza · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · #Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices #Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes #Psychedelics and Drug Studies
paper · doi:10.1215/00182168-81-3-4-653
openalex publication_date 2001/08/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
On 28 September 1911 Luz D. arrived with her husband at the admissions office of the General Insane Asylum La Castañeda, the largest state institution devoted to the care of the mentally ill in early-twentieth-century Mexico.1 Following the rules of the establishment, the Ds provided basic identification data before an asylum intern performed a routine physical and psychological examination designed to determine her mental condition. Because Luz D.’s affliction did not prevent her from understanding and answering questions, she actively participated in the institutional psychiatric interview—an interrogatory ritual structured around questions included in an official medical questionnaire—that would decide her admission status. Later, after she became an inmate, Luz D. chose to write the narrative of her illness on her own, on a separate sheet of paper:Luz D.’s ability to elaborate the story of her own experience with illness was not widespread among asylum inmates, but it was not unique either.4 In different formats and with diverse degrees of articulation, some inmates— especially those who did not suffer from severe mental conditions—participated in the elaboration of what Arthur Kleinman called illness narratives, stories in which “the plot lines, core metaphors, and rhetorical devices that structure illness are drawn from cultural and personal modes for arranging experiences in meaningful ways and for effectively expressing those meanings.”5 Asylum narratives, however, were hardly free-flowing constructions of life history. Constrained by an institutional setting that emphasized doctors’ authority and a medical questionnaire that provided limited space for inmates’ answers, these narratives brought together state health authorities and inmates as they engaged in a contested dialogue over the medical and social meanings of mental illness in Mexico. This article explores the tense and at times contradictory nature of such dialogue as it developed during the first three decades of the twentieth century, a period in which the insane asylum—established during Porfirio Díaz’s last year in office—strove to address the public health needs and welfare expectations of nascent revolutionary regimes. Based on close examination of the language used by psychiatrists and female inmates, I argue that the discussion on the proper place of poor women in society played a fundamental role in the definition of normal and abnormal behaviors. Male psychiatrists who for the most part received their education in Porfirian Mexico, for example, infused their diagnoses with normative notions of gender and class, detecting signs of mental illness in cases where human conduct deviated from socially condoned models of female domesticity in a modernizing setting.6 Hence, their repetitive and somewhat alarmed references to “capricious” and “sexually promiscuous” women who, according to some, “neither respected nor obeyed anyone.”7 By contrast, as attested by Luz D.’s narrative, female inmates swiftly proceeded to place their mental illness in the specific context of their lives, relating it to concrete tales of childbirth, conflictive family relations and, more often than not, domestic violence. As in other cases, Luz D.’s file showed that asylum and inmates mental illness in it that the and the asylum intern on a fundamental she was mentally that the over the meanings of that asylum did not from a of in which their often to notions of a more of and asylum inmates and their developed narratives of mental of in which their own of and to Luz D.’s medical from the General Insane Asylum socially of that the of mental illness and, by of mental health in modernizing Mexico. In an that the of a the of a revolutionary that over lives, and the of that to the such was that Porfirian and health authorities did not Porfirian the asylum as a of to society from health and welfare authorities of the revolutionary period the of the state to and ill In the of La to the of and the of it at a in which diverse social and Porfirian it after of revolutionary the and rules of the institution Porfirian with and and authorities and infused the institution with the and of a in the In and the of narratives that developed in asylum during the revolutionary period the of of public health that the of the state to health and social and inmates did not narratives in a article first the and of the General Insane Asylum of in which of the mental health of the to social psychiatrists participated in by what was normal and abnormal in human the was not as and as often in medical asylum in from the of the psychiatrists inmates, but the as by Luz D.’s was in the article to the of the psychiatric in which inmates, with the to of their in ways that and the official medical questionnaire of the of article explores cases of women as to psychiatric diagnoses and of their own medical by in of in which the and the to Because called for of and it the of in of mental that female used to elaborate stories of their basic human experience with women the nature of their physical and the and social as of the the narratives that women as they with asylum their ability to and the domestic and social they and to those their than to of the these narratives the ways in which inmates’ physical and to and on the of their at a fundamental the narratives in of the of the in which Luz D. the of the General Insane by and she was with mental health the of the asylum was and the insane asylum was for the Porfirian became Porfirio over the of the institution on September the on which the for the of the with from the welfare the insane asylum on the social of that the Porfirian and a of their of medical and with the of society to the of the largest welfare institution for the mentally ill in modernizing the the asylum were to a “the and the from the and the in an society with the of the of their modernizing asylum of as a to the mentally ill and to of of social however, in with of the asylum as a place of where of society medical and of as of and of the and physical of the that to that as of state to over the of for the insane during the the of the asylum was by a welfare on a in which the of welfare and of the poor of the Porfirian played fundamental by with the of the insane as as by social alarmed with the of poor in the and a by in which included an and of the and of insane in the and in that to in Mexico, of included the of of and rules of for insane by the of of for the a in were asylum and from the the and for the and the Insane in and in was the first to the of mental health to in Mexico. on mental health and the of in that in which and social In from the role of a cultural of in a to at the did not in the of the the data it in the of the Porfirian a with the asylum and who the to the asylum to the authorities that medical to to prevent and social with the and of fundamental of the Porfirian the in the mental health of was that the of an insane asylum of the of the mentally that the of an insane asylum on the of physical and medical they that the asylum from to a the of and the of and the of they that authorities a to inmates, and asylum the of a of admission and in which and inmates as they were a and the of the asylum separate inmates from the In to the of the they that inmates according to first and to of and other to the of the asylum would medical with and the the state as the of a and the asylum the Porfirian to for a place among the and of the however, of for the of to On from the of to and to conduct a of the by the in the of the with for asylum authorities in a of in where from the of the modernizing during the by the La was at in was not however, that of the of were to the of to medical notions with the of mental were the the and the according to would the asylum In from the an that with the in the of and however, to and with who in of the of the asylum in the to the was by and, as the in the of their was a in which the public with Based on on asylum from and the as as from mental health and a and that to the to the of La narrative used to write the a of cultural of the for inmates, and of the the included specific first a of the that emphasized from the from especially from in of asylum the of the of the of during the and for the of In the the the specific needs of the to data the and with a a the as modernizing and from but they did it in a and experiences to the of was to with to the of This from the of own from to the of and from a by and and of the and of the first official of in these of the were they did not the in fundamental in the of and Porfirio a to asylum would inmates and the General of became the of the to the of the of the most of the Porfirian General Insane Asylum and of the in which it was of and of the Porfirian the physical of the institution separate for and with with and to “the of a social the asylum the those to the and the to inmates who in the for inmates female and inmates from the mental health in were in those for and was in the rules of the which a at the by an the medical and and by an from the and the of the asylum of included rules to inmates with the psychiatric the and of the these however, to a institutional was limited by the social context in which the asylum after the As the was in the and and and an of in and was of the on the General Insane Asylum was and In the the institution in By the among of who to the the some of La a of were in with the of the the and that it the asylum which and medical a of the institution as a that asylum authorities in the of in the of in for women and for was a by asylum authorities that the of inmates to they were that the welfare the the to care to of and social physical structure and the of the the of the example, by from the that inmates and of that not By asylum and the of and basic as as and the of and of most for the asylum and it as a an institution in the inmates with poor and inmates with and were state of the institution was not limited to welfare of as a medical for the by intern for the care and of inmates in the of inmates a that was a than an the limited of and the after asylum care of an of inmates in inmates, as as the were to these on the of the institution of the asylum and medical the of and of the institution and with the of to the state such as the during the first three decades of the twentieth century, psychiatrists and inmates in an institution that in of medical and in of of was by and that psychiatrists and inmates with narratives of mental illness that and the of of gender and in inmates, Luz D. first her at the of the in a that with and the more an mental illness of the medical of the institution did not conduct psychiatric they the of their by data and during the psychiatric and it with the elaboration of the of asylum the of the inmate, her a of the the and and, the of the of the the medical of mental illness and of in psychiatric in a society with and as social that the of an among psychiatrists of the a during Porfirian the of a of mental to the not a In psychiatric of the mentally that and for cases of mental to notions the insane as for the ways in which medical used a of with social in example, of the on by a of who in with a on mental emphasized social and education as of mentally ill in of a which the with and not the of mental as on in the official of the of and developed among mental health and these in close with the of the and of such as and of mental illness to Porfirian by the twentieth century, the of psychiatrists and social to the mentally ill as who the of and the of the at This to in the of Porfirian they they the devoted to the of their of mental illness with the psychiatric of asylum in and As in society at the of of asylum was not a medical but a social to of the of society that in were of the and in the of the an social with the of the insane that their a of social La a were of the of the In for example, women and a of in the institution were and inmates were the of and and arrived at the asylum at the of the by and in public most female inmates a of as domestic and as were of inmates to more included such as and the asylum such as and most inmates were such as and of inmates to La in and often by and, according to most the of the insane became the in by psychiatrists the of psychiatrists and inmates with at the psychiatric Based on a medical questionnaire that included questions to the of mental cases of and in the family of the medical interrogatory for of which were by a a psychiatric of a Because doctors’ diagnoses such at La inmates’ ability to their as as the to the personal of psychiatrists and inmates to different social and cultural they were to with other and contradictory and limited by the medical of the inmates’ stories the in which they and asylum and to and signs that their own the psychiatric and experiences with the language of but the did not a of inmates’ own of In their diagnoses with the of authorities who brought inmates to the and from their such as in the of a from inmates’ of their own references to and as of by the of medical more than different diagnoses during the first of psychiatric was that asylum were often at by inmates’ illness In psychiatrists however, were by medical at the of the century, of the mentally ill and which they and, at their own as of as the psychiatric and in asylum and became and such as mental with the of they with a of in played especially In those cases, gender and and in medical diagnoses and other are as of contested and as brought by cases of according to asylum was especially among women of the at La were often by an of female As in and mental health insane women the of normative models of that as domestic detecting signs of mental illness female deviated from the the interrogatory included questions to in the of inmates, psychiatrists used different modes of for and female inmates, the on a As in female inmates on their for the of and mental these questions rules of female were in their they to on the female that the they used to female in the first In psychiatrists to the of the of in revolutionary by the of Porfirian developed by and of the asylum on female they that “the and the are of that in the determine and that and mental illness did not in a In a of social rules and were social gender developed of the and women to and education at the of the that to elaborate the of the of the of state authorities to women of on and to the public the of and social the decades of the twentieth as and to women their they to their that they that place and women In an of the La as it it a that data on the and physical of the female by and an to they the of such female This was hardly an for who that the of the the of the and the of the on the and of of in however, social in the in society that of women became of that but that female in in their for were to to of at the welfare institution devoted to women to a for the of the of women in Mexico. became but it became that they did not the place in their they the medical and rules that the and other of became at the to in other welfare the General Insane medical that with female the asylum and female As questions psychiatrists and by at at female to to the received in hardly of to of asylum in was as in other such as and which with a diagnoses of in asylum from that psychiatrists from the revolutionary were the and social of a medical used in Porfirian medical with diagnoses of which often narratives, showed that in psychiatric not from medical over but from the contested in which asylum and female inmates participated with and to did not in in a context that the nature of the female and the role of women in the of a it became for to female mental illness on the of as the revolutionary period women as insane more to social such as that emphasized the of the female Asylum psychiatrists during the of in women who to to models of female of the were especially in of the as in of their that was the devoted close and to a who arrived at the of the asylum in most and psychiatrists were the of to that her was of the of condition. of her of the to as an and, her to and and other as the as definition and but she was to especially those to the of her however, the designed to As became an asylum inmate, her with and a she performed at the of the where her and with her medical attested the asylum however, and women developed mental condition. of a of psychiatrists an to elaborate on the of in to that an a and her In she was to to with her with she her by to the of and, most to other of such to the questions in the that she not of what was to than an and her as a who, an was for the to the asylum in on the to she was an who a and to some in different signs of in the of with which she her her her her as as in her to argue with other as the intern in that was as as the she became normal that and of and in the medical file of a who with her in As in her medical file that from to showed and a to to the respected nor obeyed from she was a that her to in her that her to from her but she the she was not a different in the her and a she to the of the her as as by the of women from example, a who in an who of and showed a for and which first examination at the of the in was especially she was as as she the of a she women were to as especially they to as for their fundamental rules of female conduct after to La on September 1911 she used language to husband on her times to she on as her with a they to to a in her asylum did not the female to a women who was by in for example, showed a for of her female inmates, to her and she not In inmates such as a from to for as a of of a mental especially in the of the other In the in which included the of the other inmate, the and the of and her an human of the by women socially the of as signs of female mental an first in and to La of her not to but to her family to write and the and the in and of her as a insane Luz D.’s ability to write the narrative of her illness as of her mental condition. as a the of asylum these women at times to their personal an the of women of early-twentieth-century asylum stories of their to was hardly an among In the narrative of their experience with female inmates on and often in the medical As women to and the of their they the stories of their lives, in contested with asylum than of however, they fundamental life that the to by In women engaged in a tense dialogue the medical and social of gender in revolutionary Mexico. the “capricious” to in a however, life stories the in which they were a stories developed around conflictive family a fundamental In a social to female to a and public life that some of the twentieth were to was the of who to the of and the as of who, for example, that she was to the asylum not to In a society that life with did not by their that she was did not to a of who arrived at the asylum in her by from that she was and asylum tense and and the of the to the of their as some for her that her condition. relations were in the at in a of cases, their to the female with family authority in for example, from to the in she became an at the of she first with a who a she used to and a she to her who to ways and, after a over she she was not with her but with her for different the she as to the that were to the of the became that it as an to from her as some to the did the for example, not her but participated in the psychiatric the of family relations with and developed as of the modernizing rules of often than not, such their relations with engaged in relations with of her In an of she first to a and, the of her for and life asylum of women who relations with not and their but the of the As attested by a and I and with and their of revolutionary more often than not of to the of such with a for she became to she arrived at the asylum in September and her to her but not the of as from the in of showed that women who to their own, a of for however, was not a of domestic and women as of mental illness in female inmates’ most women as insane their stories to a it as a physical at the of and a who of she arrived to the asylum in for example, developed a of after a to her at that and the as a of a on her physical did not in Luz D.’s narrative, she of “the life I with the In as in played a fundamental role in female a with mental to Luz for example, her husband brought a to with a that and as to the Ds became in the to prevent her to the Luz D. to her family and society at with a to her of with domestic models that female and by her husband and, in a the times she on her to the insane women of however, in the as and they psychiatrists and to it to the of the women the and they and provided to the gender relations that and of and family a in female narratives of mental the context of of the and which in over these personal stories provided the personal of social in In for example, a from a she received the of the of of her and, a that her to the of the was that the of a with which she was a her first after her in that she was for before she the for which she did not with from her and society at for that to for her of her mental of the ways in which with and during the of the twentieth century, these medical stories of the of these in the life narratives of modernizing as insane to of and social brought by the of the to the of an experience hardly by the of This was especially in the of who, as her in of to write In her of she was an of the who, her to a of was to a her as mentally As in the she in who, according to was with her on the of the and that the asylum and her that she called her to a who did not her life the of As a female of a in she the of as a definition of her the space of a of she chose to elaborate a of the that her in her were the of the the asylum in and first to the and of asylum In to the she a public the state of and, among female inmates, she the of three to her however, not with asylum In these she a social by the of of and of from the and In her she as from the from the who the of a her the of that her life as a and as a was not of of the and the of women to education as as to at place in in emphasized was nor that psychiatrists often women who were with “the social as and women with as in the domestic and social they to the story of their and, in they medical diagnoses of status. Because diagnoses of more in from and by was a of female over Porfirian of of mental illness in which and were in a in which they as and and and female inmates asylum of the revolutionary to and Porfirian medical than an women as insane from the of asylum were to of the and in psychiatrists did not their they to to the of the female in the of psychiatric female inmates participated in the of that and meaningful for and social by asylum they became in the of the in which in medical to the of of in the language of to especially among with education nor who, in their by and violence. to from the and mental health of the insane asylum that and of mental during the first three decades of the twentieth century, and for the of diverse of mental arrived by the at the of the General Insane where the the at times the participated in the of narratives of in with from the insane asylum that and inmates other in the of cultural narratives doctors’ for inmates’ human experience with the narratives that to address the personal of the inmate, at to and than degrees of for a to the from the asylum showed by more than a the and the in the of by the psychiatric in and by the of and psychiatric that mental illness to the in inmates as a of of from the twentieth who gender relations for for example, but to over family authority in their of women as mentally and for the they did not address of domestic in the of mental among women of the In to the of as a medical the poor with social and of to with the and to the human of mental illness from the and gender that and inmates, and did not to welfare authorities in with state to the institution by a and medical doctors’ female inmates who were to their experiences with mental illness the of life narratives that the and nature of the psychiatric in the story of their lives, women as mentally ill to the of and the which they were In the context of an institutional that to asylum As women used institutional questions not to doctors’ psychiatric but to in the by