The article addresses the de-institutionalization of psychiatric care in Rio de Janeiro's pubiic hospitais during the 1980s. it takes as íts case study the process of institutional change that took place at the Colônia Juliano Moreira psychiatric fácility, prompted by criticísms of the typical asylum model and the social exclusion implied in it. The article analyzes the strategy of, and attitudes towards, this change, which sougiu to humanize and democratize the hospital. It describes the set of ideas displayed by the institutional agents proposing the transformation and examines how formulation have been adopted from Italy's democratic psychiatry. Lastly, the article points to the scope and impasses of the case in question from the perspective of fJrazil's socioeconomic characteristics, which make necessary utmost cau-tion when devising a de-institutionalization policy.