Notes on the History of Care Institutions for the Mentally Ill in Murcia Prior to the Psychiatric Reform

Abstract

This article stems from one of the keynote presentations that inaugurated the XIII Conference of the History Section of the Spanish Association of Neuropsychiatry held in April 2024 at the University of Murcia. From that presentation titled "History of psychiatric care in Murcia," a brief review has been compiled of those institutions that began providing shelter to people with mental illness in the first half of the 18th century up to the Health Law of 1986, which includes the principles for the so-called Psychiatric Reform. It would not be possible to understand the scope and development of this reform without observing, as psychiatrist Luis Valenciano would warn, the trajectory and experience of previous generations and the changing interests of public Administration. The role of some psychiatrists in promoting more humanized institutions and professional care with rehabilitative objectives are among the factors that fostered the discourses and practices that would promote changes toward community-based care in the treatment of mental health problems.