This study analyzed the context of frequent hospital readmissions of individuals with psychic suffering in the following dimensions: immediate, specific, general and metacontextual. Following the contextual perspective proposed by the theoretical framework of Hinds, Chaves and Cypress (1992), the results of the narrative review of the scientific literature were categorized in four subthemes corresponding to the contextual dimensions: 1) the revolving door of psychiatry (immediate contextual level); 2) disarticulation of the mental health care network (specific contextual level); 3) the mad person and madness in the social mental imagery: the hospital as the "healing" place (general contextual level); 4) mental health paradigms: the epistemological dimension of psychiatric knowledge and action (metacontext). The analysis and comprehension of the contexts in which psychiatric hospital readmissions are included are significant so that the advances achieved by the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform and by the National Health System become effective.
Mental disorder; Psychiatric hospital readmissions; Deinstitutionalization; Revolving door