“Does everyone have a history?”: experiences of ex-inmates in a psychiatric hospital

Abstract

The Psychiatric Reform progressively seeks to shift the focus of hospital care to territorial care networks. The objective of this study was to understand the experience of people in severe psychic suffering about hospitalization and post- hospitalization in a psychiatric hospital. A qualitative study was conducted, using the Focal Life History method, with interviews with 5 former inmates of the extinct Franco da Rocha Psychiatric Hospital (HPFR). Through the Content Analysis Theme, three categories were raised: the way to relate to madness, the ambivalence of experiences and the nuances of a possible break of paradigms. Such categories allowed to discuss the coexistence between the asylum and psychosocial paradigms in the current scenario of Psychiatric Reform, constituting crossings in the ways of composing itineraries of care between people with psychic suffering. It is stated a need for the production of ways of care that respect the right to citizenship, the word and the history of people with psychic suffering.