This work had as purpose analyze as the familiar ones of mental sick people represent the insane person, the insanity and the psychiatric hospitals. The research was carried through in a particular psychiatric institution and a public institution (CAPS), both situated in the city of João Pessoa (PB), participating 30 family members of each institution. The Free Test of Association of words was used, with the following stimulations: mental, wild sick person and psychiatric hospital. The results had been analyzed through the Tri-deux-mots program. The data had shown that the terms "mental sick" and "insane person" still are associated with the negative representations, being considered as different of the too much illnesses, predominating a vision of fear and reject. The insanity meets associated to a negative and strange dimension, who threat and loose the balance. In function of this, the exclusion of the insane person, materialized for its internment in a psychiatric hospital, is the result of a "diffuse social perception", diluted for the diverse institutions that associate madness to the negative side of the reason.