The asylum of insanes and the city, a common history

Abstract

The asylum of insanes - Juqueri, was the first in the state of São Paulo and during its golden period, the largest hospital complex in Brasil. It was a fundamental landmark in the model that had the mental hospital as its main therapeutic instrument. The hospital had determined deeply the destiny and the increase of the little village where it was installed, which is nowadays the town of Franco da Rocha. Besides being the major employing institution of the town till the seventies, the hospital also set up the political, economical and administrative relations, and the social organization of the town that grew around it.Today Juqueri is decadent and forgotten. On the other hand, the town grew and changed to a "dormitory city", which has in the capital and in the train its principal motor. The author introduces a discussion about Juqueri's influence in the implementation of the town of Franco da Rocha, and its importance throughout a whole century not only in the growing of the town, but also in the determination of the already mentioned relations, of the cultural aspects and a identity of the inhabitants surrounding the asylum and the madness.