Abstract

This article proposes to analyze the formulation of mental health politics during the transition of chattel slavery to agrarian capitalism in Jamaica, from the end of the XVIII century to 1861 so, to formulate a chronology that ables to oversee their particularities in the colonial context. Thus, it reveals how the management of lunacy was part of a more general process of socialization and disciple of the black majorities in racialize society that established specifics social mechanisms and dispositifs for the emergent necessities in a conflictive socio-political context. In order to accomplish that, we’ve analyzed primary sources –state documents, texts and productions by medical and political personalities, press articles–, as well as specialized bibliography from the global, regional and Jamaican context. The purpose was to deepen the study of the role of medicine and psychiatry in the origin of specific policies and discourses for the emergence of the Imperial citizen.

Keywords Caribbean History; colonialism; afrocreole culture; colonial psychiatry; insanity management