This paper aims at analyzing madness, as considered by mental health care workers from a second level service institution, and how they see the therapy offered by the organization. A research was conducted through semi-structured interviews with mental health care workers. Speech analysis allowed to observe various forms of acquiring madness, divided in two groups: one which reproduces scientific knoledge (linked to the different lines of thought in the area) and the other, that reproduces knowledge acquired through practice. This last group enables a social view of madness, which is a result of social differences. Authors also found the dangerousness of the mentally sick, split in three categories.
madness conception; mental health