The essay analyzes the development of the modern psychiatric institution, represented most importantly by the emergence of the traditional asylum organization. In this type of institution, the process of behavioral control operates upon the same epistemological bases that fostered the bureaucratic model of domination-in other words, in consonance with the instrumental-rational approach that legitimizes as key principles predictability and efficacy. In contrast, there has recently been a break with this organizational type, expressed through the anti-asylum and anti-psychiatry movements, chiefly in the form of denunciations and criticisms of the contradictory 'telos' so evident at asylums and, secondarily, in the form of reformist proposals. Lastly, this change in paradigm has moved towards humanizing interactions between actors within the asylum model.
modern psychiatric institution; asylum model; psychiatric reform; organizational logic