This paper seeks to explore the cultural construction of mental illness in the 19th century colonial Philippines by reframing "madness" (or enajenacion mental in Spanish), not as a mere medical or legal category, but as a contested cultural signifier that is embedded in colonial discourses of law and order, othering, and societal control. Although recent scholarship has begun to consider mental health as a contemporary social concern, its historical and cultural roots in the Philippines remain critically underexplored. By utilizing primary sources, including but not limited to ecclesiastical texts, medical reports, and legal accounts, this study aims to investigate how representations of madness were employed to signify deviance, otherness, or spiritual disturbance, often in ways that reflect a broader colonial civilizing mission. Using frameworks on postcolonial and cultural studies, this study interrogates how colonial power operated not only through institutions like mental asylums, hospices, or the Church, but also through symbolic structures that categorized and determined who was to be considered as rational, moral, or sane. This study attempts to shed light on the shifting boundaries between illness, identity, and colonial ideology. It argues that madness served as a powerful cultural tool to discipline behavior, pathologize resistance, and reinforce colonial hierarchies.

Authors:
Jasper Christian Gambito, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Philippines

About the Presenter(s)
Jasper Christian L. Gambito is currently serving as an Assistant Professor at the Department of History of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) in Manila.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Friday Schedule

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