Madness production power devices: from hospitalization to table

Abstract

This text examines how inpatient care and pharmacological devices operate in the creation of madness and mental disorders as objects of knowledge and power. The study is a theoretical essay with a qualitative approach, developed through a narrative literature review with a critical-interpretative character. Through this narrative literature review, it looks at how psychiatric power, alongside inpatient care, controls the bodies of patients and evolves in the 20th century with the emergence of psychopharmacology and diagnostic manuals. The study is organized around three main points: first, the historical formation of the institution of hospitalization and the production of madness as a subject of knowledge; second, the consolidation of modern psychiatry and diagnostic classifications as mechanisms of normalization; and finally, the emergence of psychopharmacology and the so-called 'compressed device' as a contemporary technology for managing psychic suffering. Beyond the role of normalization and social control that both devices perform, the pharmacological device meets the needs of today’s society, which demands people to be productive and adaptable to different situations.