Con los nervios de punta: de la medicalización a la psicologización de los quebrantos mentales en el trabajo. Bogotá y Medellín, 1898-1961

Abstract

In this article it will analize the way in which nervous exhaustion and fatigue were objectified by the medicine inside the labour environment in the cities of Bogota and Medellin, during the first half of twentieth century. From there the necessity of taking as reference identification of alleged hardship related to intellectual and physical work sphere. To the demand of frugal behaviours to minimize the effects of that hardship, it added the growing psychologization of world work in the middle of the century. That psychologization was turned into a tool that extended the spectrum of anormality, in the midst of the metamorphosis experienced by the productive system and diversification of labour structure nationally.