The limits of technocracy : the National Board of Psychiatric Care and the authoritarian modernisation of psychiatric care in second Francoist Spain

Abstract

From the 1950s on, the traditional approach to mental hygiene, essentially aimed at the prophylaxis of madness within the framework of a seriesof interventionist policies of social defence, gave way to a much more ambitious and comprehensive project that aspired to promote the emotional balance and psychosocial performance of individuals in the context of an increasingly socialized health rhetoric and care networks. In second period of Francoist Spain, these ideas inspired and guided the activities of the National Board of Psychiatric Care (PANAP), which launched a modest program of mental health education and promoted various initiatives for improving psychiatric care. This article analyses these activities in the context of the deployment of authoritarian and technocratic government strategies and examines their incompatibility with the new culture of mental health.