The Insanity Museum, in the interior of Minas Gerais, opened in 1996 as the first museum dedicated to mental health in Brazil.  It is a delicate subject, handled with dignity, reflection, and without excessive tut-tutting and hand-wringing.

The site, on a hill outside the medium-sized city of Barbacena, encompasses a large hospital originally named Dom Pedro II (after Brazil’s second and last Emperor), which opened in 1852 as the first psychiatric hospital in Brazil.  In 1903 it turned into a full treatment center, the Hospital Colônia Barbacena.

Accompanying the same de-humanizing practices pioneered mid-century in the U.S., including shock therapy and frontal lobotomies, the hospital regrettably became a dumping ground of difficult cases, patients whose families or home towns no longer wished to, or could, care for them.

In the 1970s, the hospital became the center of scandal, with several journalistic investigations revealing scenes of overcrowding, stretched resources, and neglect. (One exhibit cited 7 cooks attending to 1,200 patients for a time.)

While all the exhibits are only in Portuguese, the museum is well worth a visit, as the visual impact of the exhibitions is enough to understand both the controversies as well as the awareness and compassion that came in the fullness of time. [please hover over images for captions]