In this work we will analyze the changes of mental hospitals as being the central column of psychiatry as well as knowledge- creating centres. In order to achieve it we will take into account all their conflicts and contradictions during their first 150 years. We will therefore analyze some of the historiographycal controversies regarding the role of the mental hospitals as confinement, societyprotecting and scientific-knowledge spaces, by using the French case and the work carried out by Michel Foucault.En el presente trabajo analizamos los avatares de la institución manicomial como eje vertebrador de la psiquiatría y como centro productor de saber. Para ello tomamos en cuenta los conflictos y contradicciones durante sus primeros ciento ci...