The insane asylum, in spite of being criticized, reformed or even denied, is still a predominant habit in taking care of people with mental disturbances. That habit has as its basic principle the isolation of the mental sick, contradicting all the possibilities of assistance centered in an ethical humanism. This essay tries to interpret the institutionalization of the asylum, psychiatry, mental sickness and also the process of psychiatry reform, searching to contribute to all the reflections about uninstitutionalization, nursing knowledge and practice in mental health.
reform of health services; community psychiatry; nursing; mental health