[Psychiatric Archives: Archive for which History? The Writings and Drawings of René L.]

The archives of the psychiatric institutions are often mobilized to investigate the history of the treatment of mental disorders and its modalities in our societies. From a patient's record, interned in the Hôpital du Bon Sauveur in the department of Manche in France in 1963, this article shows how these archives are part of writing a different story that of decolonization and particularly the independence of Algeria and the end of French colonization. In particular, studied the drawings by this patient and the way it reflects the collective history.