Simbología del poder. El caso de las puertas en las unidades de hospitalización psiquiátrica

Why in some acute psychiatric wards there is even a double access door? What explanation do we give to the existence of armored doors? Do we save or hide "something" that society needs to make invisible? Has anyone measured the therapeutic effects of the design, space and architectural structure of acute psychiatric wards? The environment and its elements, including the set formed by the space of the service, the furniture and the material that the patients use during their stay in a hospital center, influence the health results. In this work of theoretical contribution, we analyze the apparently formal element that forms an artistic object, the door, and that nevertheless is, as a bearer of symbolic values, a referent of an ideological corpus contextualized and produced in acute psychiatric wards. The symbolic value of the door facilitates, at the same time it allows, the understanding of processes or phenomena inherent to the practices, attention and care provided to and with the people admitted, and the private and intimate area that constitutes the acute psychiatric wards in an oppressive and hostile space towards the person. Keywords: environment designs, symbolism, health services, hospitalization