DOCUMENTARY RESEARCH ON THE ROLE OF LEISURE ACTIVITIES IN MODERN MENTAL ASYLUM

NATIONAL INSPECTION REPORTS

Abstract

This study on leisure activities in modern mental asylum aims to determine the role of leisure in these institutions. This is a documentary research with a qualitative approach using secondary data obtained from four national inspection reports. The data reveal that leisure in modern mental asylum is guided by the conception of the mad person and the drug user as a problematic and deviant individual, who must be controlled. When they exist, leisure activities are centered on a few elements of body culture and assume the functionalist perspective, accompanied by dramatic violations of human rights. Therefore, the presence of leisure activities alone cannot be an indicator of humanized care. This is not to say that leisure is only subsumed, but that it presents the institutional contradictions of the mental asylum, and, contradictorily, gives legitimacy to the institution.