La psicosis del repatriado. De los campos agricolas en Estados Unidos al Manicomio La Casta?eda en la ciudad de Mexico, 1920-1944

• Published in: Mexican studies Vol. 27; no. 2; p. 361
• Main Author: Molina, Andrés Ríos
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berkeley University of California Press Books Division 01-07-2011
• Subjects: Asylum; Farmworkers; Illnesses; Latin American history; Mental disorders; Mental institutions; Mexican Americans; Migrant workers; Migrants; Patients; Psychiatrists; Psychiatry; Psychosis; Repatriation; Symptoms; Mexico
• ISSN: 0742-9797; 1533-8320
• DOI: 10.1525/msem.2011.27.2.361

Between 1920 and 1945, 140 migrant farm workers were admitted to the General Asylum of Mexico City. Most of them were illegal workers deported by the United States authorities due to conducts and expressions considered to be symptoms of mental illness. Once in the asylum, the Mexican psychiatrists in charge diagnosed some of them with "repatriate psychosis". This article takes into account the clinical files of repatriates and examines, on the one hand, the lack of consistency between two psychiatric standpoints (one Mexican, one American) regarding one same patient and, on the other hand, the reasons posed by the "madmen" themselves to explain their own "madness" and the motives that, according to them, justified their lockup. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]