Mental health in the Cold War: the role of the Pan American Health Organization in Latin America

The article describes the relationship between the Pan American Health Organization and mental health in the period from 1948 to 1990. It is based on sources produced by the Pan American Health Organization itself and the World Health Organization. The research argues that the Pan American Health Organization emerged as a key transnational agency in positioning mental health on the Latin American health agenda and, during the Cold War, contested prevailing conceptions of and approaches to this field of public health.