Behaviorism and social change: Token Economy Program at El Peral Psychiatric Hospital. Chile, 1976-1978

Abstract

In Santiago de Chile, between 1976 and 1978, a rehabilitation program for institutionalized psychiatric patients was carried out at the El Peral Psychiatric Hospital, based on the principles of behavior analysis and modification, known as "Token Economy Therapy”. The Program was applied in a context of complete abandonment of Hospital patients and violations of fundamental human rights throughout the country by the Chilean Military Dictatorship. We propose that the “Token Economy Therapy” was an attempt both to restore dignity to patients, and to give continuity to the community mental health programs that had been implemented in Santiago in the period immediately prior to the 1973 coup. and that they were violently interrupted by the government of Augusto Pinochet.