science

Hospital Colônia de Barbacena

Hospital Colônia de Barbacena is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Hospital Colônia de Barbacena rather than just read about it. In short: Hospital Colônia de Barbacena (Portuguese for 'Colony Hospital of Barbacena') was a psychiatric hospital located in the Brazilian city of Barbacena, Minas Gerais. From its foundation in 1903 until its closure in 1980, the Colônia has been a place of genocide; official estimates report over 60,000 deaths occurred inside the wards due to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment tantamounted to medical torture over the ye…

Key takeaways

Hospital Colônia de Barbacena belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Hospital Colônia de Barbacena to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Hospital Colônia de Barbacena from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Hospital Colônia de Barbacena (Portuguese for 'Colony Hospital of Barbacena') was a psychiatric hospital located in the Brazilian city of Barbacena, Minas Gerais. From its foundation in 1903 until its closure in 1980, the Colônia has been a place of genocide; official estimates report over 60,000 deaths occurred inside the wards due to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment tantamounted to medical torture over the years. Italian Psychiatrist Franco Basaglia compared the place to a Nazi concentration camp. In 2013, Brazilian journalist Daniela Arbex published O Holocausto Brasileiro ('The Brazilian Holocaust'), an investigative book telling the stories of victims and survivors. The institution is a central feature of the history of mental health services in Brazil and a major motivator for the national anti-asylum movement. The building was repurposed and since 1996 it functions as a museum, the "Museu da Loucura" (Brazilian Portuguese for 'Museum of madness').

History The hospital was founded in 1903 and its first director was Dr. Joaquim Antônio Dutra. Colônia had capacity to give shelter to 200 patients. Located in the city of Barbacena, 102 miles away from the capital of the State of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte and in the heart of the Mantiqueira Mountains, the place became a national symbol of psychiatric care in the 20th century. Whether or not requiring medical attention, people were sent by train to Barbacena from all parts of Brazil. These transports were so common they originated the regional expression "trem de doido" (Brazilian Portuguese for 'train of crazy'). By 1960, Colônia was operating heavily over capacity and had over 5,000 patients. The patients were subjected to forced labor, including children, elders and persons with disabilities. Most of them were always only partially dressed, some were fully naked. On average, over 16 persons died per day due to sickness, malnutrition, hypothermic shock as a consequence of cold water exposure, electroconvulsive therapy or murder. The staff benefited from the remains of the dead patients, as they were often smuggled to universities across the country. Whenever the demand was low, corpses were simply dissolved in acid or buried in nearby grounds. Over 70% of the patients were never diagnosed with any sort of mental disorder, yet virtually all of them were placed under permanent care, mostly because of political interests and social stigma. These patients were often alcoholics, epileptics, prostitutes, homosexuals, unwanted children, homeless people, women whose virginity was lost before marriage, enemies of the local elite or simply considered "inadequate" according to social norms, such as shy men and women with a sense of leadership. It is also notorious the fact that a significant proportion of the population in Colônia was of African ancestry. In 1980, due to pressure in the mass media, the national anti-asylum movement managed to shut down the institution and transfer the very few survivors to be placed under proper care while receiving indemnification from the state. By 1996, the building became the house of the "Museu da Loucura" (Brazilian Portuguese for 'Museum of madness'), a medical museum dedicated to the history of psychiatry in Brazil.

In popular culture The controversial 2016 Brazilian documentary O Holocausto Brasileiro (The Brazilian Holocaust) is based on the book of the same name written by Daniela Arbex and tells the entire story of Hospital Colônia, from its foundation to the discovery of the countless disturbing cases of abuse that occurred there. The Hospital Colônia de Barbacena and the countless cases of human rights abuses that occurred there are the main theme of the Brazilian drama TV series Colônia (broadcast by the pay TV channel Canal Brasil and the Brazilian streaming service Globoplay). The series (set in the 70s, during the Brazilian military regime) shows the shocking and macabre events that took place at Hospital Colônia from the point of view of the series' protagonist, Elisa (played by Fernanda Marques), a young patient at Hospital Colônia who is four months pregnant and was admitted forced into this place by her cruel and greedy father, who was enraged by her pregnancy, as her pregnancy hindered his plans to marry her off to a rich farmer (since she got pregnant by another man who wasn't this rich farmer). In Joker: the World from DC Comics, an Anthology Comic featuring work from comic creators around the world, the Brazilian Creative Team of writer Felipe Castilho, Artist/Letterer Tianan Rocha, and Colorist Mariane Gusmão have the Joker transferred to an Arkham Asylum Franchise location called Arkham Colonia. In while being processed Joker has a haircut by a man who says he's "not afraid. I once met the greatest killer of all." The barber then recounts the horrors of the Hospital Colonia. When the Joker attempts to escape and is confronted by Batman he says, "Look I'm jealous. Killers made of concrete, endorsed by politicians? That's hard to compete with!" He then begs Batman to take him home to Gotham City. "Trem De Doido", a song by Lô Borges published on his 1972 album Clube da Esquina with Milton Nascimento, was inspired by the "crazy trains" that led new interns to the Hospital Colônia de Barbacena.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hospital Colônia de Barbacena

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hospital Colônia de Barbacena claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Hospital Colônia de Barbacena before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Hospital Colônia de Barbacena ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Hospital Colônia de Barbacena

In research: Hospital Colônia de Barbacena appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Hospital Colônia de Barbacena in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Hospital Colônia de Barbacena is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1996 establishments in Brazil, Former psychiatric hospitals, Human rights abuses in Brazil, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hospital Colônia de Barbacena outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Hospital Colônia de Barbacena in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Hospital Colônia de Barbacena means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Hospital Colônia de Barbacena out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hospital Colônia de Barbacena in simple terms?

Why does Hospital Colônia de Barbacena matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Hospital Colônia de Barbacena?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Hospital Colônia de Barbacena.