Colonial powers in North Africa contributed to the introduction of a number of technological and institutional innovations that deeply influenced the development of post-independence governments, such as comprehensive mental health systems dealing with psychiatric practice in the region. In the specific case of Algeria, this network was administered by the central colonial government, who handled the creation of asylums to isolate mentally ill patients and the production of a theoretical framework for their medical practice. Moreover, the colonial administration dealt with the training of professionals who would be running these institution and would apply cutting edge psychiatric theories and therapies (Keller, 2007). This paper will argue that these factors - the establishment under colonial rule of mental institutions and the management of professional training in this medical field - contributed to the politicization of the Algerian colonial mental health system. This was also aided by the abuse of power at the hands of mental health professionals during the War of Independence, who, under directions from the French administration, used psychiatric tools to torture and segregate members of the resistance. This paper will also argue that, as a consequence of the politicization of the mental health system under colonial rule, after the decolonization process the network of institutions was left vulnerable and an easy target for the manipulation of the new government. The Algerian mental health system was therefore born as a politicised set of institutions, and continued to be so even after the end of the French administration. This paper will rely on a number of sources on colonial history and administration as well as those publications looking into colonial punishment and the relationship of power between the colonizer and the colonised, such as the work edited by Pierce and Rao (2006) on colonial punishment. Moreover, the paper will look into primary sources available at the Archives nationales d'outre-mer situated in Aix-en-Provence, providing data which will show the level of politicization of the system established in the early 20th century by the French government. This paper is based on research and fieldwork conducted as part of a larger and more complex doctoral project investigating instances of the political abuse of psychiatry within North Africa. Bibliography Keller, R. C. 2007. Colonial madness : psychiatry in French North Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pierce, S. and Rao, A. ed. 2006 Discipline and the other body : correction, corporeality, colonialism. Durham: Duke University Press.