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Bedlam in the New World: A Mexican Madhouse in the Age of Enlightenment

byChristina Ramos

Christina Ramos enters Mexico City's Hospital de San Hipólito, one of the oldest psychiatric institutions in the Americas, to explore madness during the late colonial Enlightenment. Patients accused of delusion, blasphemy, rebellion, sexual impropriety, and social disorder reveal how families and authorities defined acceptable behavior. Archival cases show sufferers interpreting their own worlds rather than merely receiving medical labels. The book connects psychiatry with race, class, religion, empire, and impending revolution, demonstrating that the madhouse was a site where colonial society tried—and often failed—to contain unsettling voices and political possibilities.

Publisher

University of North Carolina Press

Publication date

2022

Format

Print edition

Pages

—

ISBN

9781469666570