The Gang of Six Demands more Freedom. Juvenile Offenders Interned in Saint-Jean-de-Dieu, Mid-20th Century
In recent years, we have worked with many psychiatric records kept by the Archive Services of the Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal (IUSMM). The proposed article is focused on the February 12th 1959 document Assemblée des médecins located within the records of six illegitimate children admitted to the Hôpital Saint-Jean-de-Dieu in the late 1950s. Our study, inspired by the work of historian Roy Porter and his approach from below, contributes to the historical discourse seeking to incorporate patient’s voices, in this case, a gang of young offenders identified by a life course shaped by repeated institutional experience.