Gazelle Book Services Limited.

White Cross Mills, Hightown, LANCASTER LA1 4XS, United Kingdom.
Telephone: +44(0)1524 68765
Fax: +44(0)1524 63232
Email: sales@gazellebooks.co.uk
Web: www.gazellebooks.co.uk




Title:Madness in Buenos Aires : Patients, Psychiatrists & the Argentine State, 1880-1983
Series:(Latin American & Caribbean Series: 5)
Author:Jonathan Abland
ISBN:1552382338 : 9781552382332
Illustrations:22 b/w photos & 1 map
Format:Paperback
Size:155x230mm
Pages:300
Published:University of Calgary Press - July 2008
List Price: 20.99 Pounds Sterling
Availability:In Print
Subjects:History of medicine: Argentina: Psychotherapy


"Madness in Buenos Aires" examines the interactions between psychiatrists, patients & their families, & the national state in modern Argentina. This book offers a fresh interpretation of the Argentine state’s relationship to modernity & social change during the twentieth century, while also examining the often contentious place of psychiatry in modern Argentina. Drawing on a number of previously unused archival sources, author Jonathan Ablard demonstrates how the experience of psychiatric patients serves as a useful case study of how the Argentine state developed & functioned over the last century & of how Argentines interacted with it. Ablard argues that the capacity of the Argentine state to provide social services & professional opportunities & to control the populace was often constrained to an extent not previously recognised in the scholarly literature. These limitations, including a shortage of hospitals, insufficient budgets, & political & economic instability, shaped the experiences of patients, their families, & doctors & also influenced medical & lay ideas about the nature & significance of mental illness. Furthermore, these experiences, & the institutional framework in which they were imbedded, had a profound impact on how Argentine psychiatrists discussed not only mental illness, but also a host of related themes including immigration, poverty, & the role of the state in mitigating social problems. Co-published with Ohio University Press.