El impacto de la Beneficencia en la gestión, tratamiento y cuidado de los dementes alcalaínos en el s. XIX

During the 19th century, in Spain, different laws and orders for the establishment and organization of the Charity Public took place, being the public authorities who were to exercise social charity to the most vulnerable. In this context, further influenced by the emergence of Moral Treatment, a new philosophical and action concept was activated inmanagement, treatment and care for the mentally ill, considered then insane and/or madness. Health care placed a greater emphasis on occupational activity as therapy, as well as improving healthiness and hygienic conditions. However, many factors made it impossible to consummate change, leading to the emergence of new asylum institutions with a marked asylating and custodial character.The aim of this historical study is to try to know the situation in health care to the demented of Alcalá la Real (Jaén) of the time. In the sources used, two fundamental pillars stand out in our study: the Municipal Archive of Alcalá la Real and the Archive of the Provincial Council of Granada. Fromthe data collected it is outlinedhowin the first two decades of the second half of the nineteenth century the madmen alcalaínos were transferred to the Hospital of Madness of Granada, section of the Royal Hospital. The absence of a hospital for these patients in Jaén justified such transfers. The latter were accompanied by a long bureaucratic process that began on the Municipal Board of Charity and ended with the approval of the governor of Jaén.Keywords: historiography, psychiatry, history, 19th century, madness, charity policy, nursing care.