Rafael Huertas

Spanish National Research Council | CSIC · Instituto de Historia

The work of Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1908-1942) is an interesting illustration of the power of representing the struggles of the inner world in literature. In her work, the whole problem of otherness is evident, which is largely resolved through literary activity, in a woman who assumed in herself a marginal otherness due to her gender, her sexual...

El español Ángel Garma (1904-1993) y el francés Daniel Lagache (1903-1972) son dos figuras clave para la psicología y el psicoanálisis del siglo XX. Hemos localizado parte de su relación epistolar en el Archivo Ángel Garma, conservado en Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. El análisis de esta c...

The Spanish psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Ángel Garma-exiled in Argentina after the Spanish Civil War-was one of the founders and the first president of the Argentinian Psychoanalytical Association. Garma unsuccessfully tried to become a university lecturer on three occasions. His final attempt was in 1965, when he applied for a professorship in d...

Jacob Levy Moreno, the well-known creator of psychodrama, had a close epistolary relationship with the Spanish psychiatrist Ramón Sarró; a collection of these letters has been located in the Sarró personal archive, deposited in the Library of Catalonia. After locating and arranging this correspondence, we proceeded to analyze and contextualize its...

Writer, professor, and feminist activist Kate Millett published The Loony-Bin Trip in 1990. In this autobiographical account, the author describes her experience as a survivor of psychiatry, after two internments. This article analyzes the contents of The Loony-Bin Trip, highlighting its importance for a reflection on madhouse criticism, the experi...

El presente artículo identifica y propone cinco claves a tener en cuenta para analizar la recepción y desarrollo del psicoanálisis en la España del segundo franquismo y la Transición: 1) la ausencia –o muy escasa presencia– de referencias psicoanalíticas en la producción psiquiátrica de los años cincuenta y sesenta; 2) las conexiones entre psicoaná...

La revistas, periódicos, boletines, etc., elaborados por los pacientes en el interior de los establecimientos psiquiátricos constituyen una fuente histórica, escasamente explorada, que ofrece claves sobre el funcionamiento de las instituciones, sobre la vida cotidiana en su interior y sobre las experiencias de los pacientes y del personal. El objet...

In the final years of the Franco dictatorship and during the period known as the democratic transition, there were a significant number of protests in the sphere of mental health in Spain. This article analyses the origins and functioning of the Psychiatric Network, which emerged in 1971, its connection to the formation of professional organization...

The aim of this article is to analyze how psychoanalytic ideas were received within the context of the debate around sexuality which took place in Spain during the 1920s and 1930s. While this reception was initially marked by a questioning of the role that Freud assigned to sexuality, psychoanalytic discourse would later make an appearance in vario...

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar los contenidos psiquiátricos de la novela de Torcuato Luca de Tena Los renglones torcidos de Dios (1979), con el fin de valorar de qué manera esta obra de ficción fue capaz de reflejar la realidad asistencial en la España de los años setenta en un contexto de profundos cambios culturales en torno a la locura....

While there has been some research into Francoist psychiatry, much work still needs to be done on the reorganization of the mental health profession within the new state. Held in Barcelona on 12, 13 and 14th January 1942, the National Neurology and Psychiatry Conference undoubtedly played a major role in the attempt to overthrow the dominant ideas...

La Philosophie de la folie (1791; 2nd ed.: 1804) constitutes an essential precursor of what would later come to be known as moral treatment. Its author, Joseph Daquin, was a physician at the Hospice des Incurables patients in the city of Chambèry (formerly the Duchy of Savoy; Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia) from 1788. The work contains his thoughts o...

Se discuten los resultados de la aplicación de los principios doctrinarios liberales en el terreno de la salud durante la década anterior, cuales son las resistencias que este proceso ha encontrado por parte de comunidades e intelectuales destacados y que perspectivas en el corto plazo pueden llegar a afectar valores éticos de fundamental importanc...

The aim of this article is to explore the scientific content of the “sexual reform” movement which took place in Spain during the 1920s and 1930s, culminating during the Second Republic. It covers three essential aspects of this subject: 1) the introduction of the new science of sexology; 2) the interest in sex education for children; and 3) the pa...

The aim of this article is to contribute to the analysis of the origins of psychiatric semiology, which by emphasizing subjectivity in clinical practice, gave birth to psychopathology as the scientific and intellectual enterprise of alienism. In other words, beyond simple anatomical and clinical observation, there was an effort to 'listen to' and '...

Se analiza el significado del concepto de “obsesión” en el alienismo del siglo XIX. Desde el punto de vista clínico, la descripción de Esquirol fue completada por otros autores (Jules Falret, Legrand du Saulle). En el ámbito de la reflexión psicopatológica, el alienismo francés, con el delirio emotivo de Morel o la psicastenia de Janet, defendió la...

The article analyses the significance of the concept of "obsession" in nineteenth-century alienism. From a clinical point of view, Esquirol's description was completed by other authors (Jules Falret, Legrand du Saulle). In the area of psychopathological studies, French alienism, with Morel's emotional delirium or Janet's psychasthenia, defended the...

This article aims to summarise, in the first instance, some of the historiographical trends which have built a “critical” history of psychiatry from the 1960s onwards. Thereafter, it will demonstrate, with suitably significant examples, how methods and discourses were being refined and updated, before reaching a proposal for a new cultural history...

This paper analyzes the main features of the urban reforms by Benjamin Vicuña Mackenna in Santiago de Chile between 1872 and 1875. We pay special attention to the origin of the objectives of modernization, closely related to the political agenda of Latin American elites to create an urban culture (civilization). We also analyze the strategies of so...

Our main objective is to analyze the importance of the relationship between eugenics and psychiatry at the trought of Antonio Vallejo Nágera.We aim to contextualize their scientifc and policies proposals in the general thought of the decades of 1920-1930, and asses which are the original elements of his work and which belong to that.Also we try to...

This article examines the influence of the French alienist Alexandre Brierre de Boismont in the first development of the Spanish psychiatric profession during the third quarter of the 19th century. As an outstanding figure of French psychological medicine, Brierre enjoyed great scientific prestige among Spanish doctors, but he also took an active p...

A fines del siglo XIX se propagó en el mundo occidental la figura cultural de la ciudad moderna. En una doble clave interpretativa de neto corte biologicista, la ciudad aparecía como causa directa de inéditas patologías sociales pero también y de forma simultánea, como la más eficaz terapia para superarlas. En su constitutiva dualidad, esta ciudad...

This paper aims to present and analyze the hygiene education project of Belisario Penna (1868-1939). This physician took part in the public health movement that sought, through This paper analyzes the main features of the urban reforms by Benjamin Vicuña Mackenna in Santiago de Chile between 1872 and 1875. We pay special attention to the origin of...

The aim of this paper is to analyze the contribution of philosopher of science Ian Hacking to the cultural history of psychiatry. Based on ideas proposed by this author, as "transient mental illness" or "making up people", some reflections on the socio-cultural construction of mental illness are offered. The examination and discussion the two case...

In 1863, on request of the Spanish physician Antonio Pujadas, a Commission made up of the alienists Brierre de Boismont, Legrand du Saulle and Loiseau was appointed by the Société médico-psychologique in order to elaborate a detailed report on the mental condition of the patient Juana Sagrera, whose commitment into a psychiatric institution had bee...

The present paper aims to discuss the role that some doctors played in the development of children's «sexual education» in 1930s Spain. Special attention is paid to approaches of a psychoanalytical inspiration that have been overlooked by medical and general historiography, in the authors opinion. In order to carry out this aim, the authors study t...

This paper discusses the contribution of Spanish neurologist Manuel Peraita (1908-1950) to the study of deficiency neuropathy in the setting of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The clinical characteristics of "paraesthetic-causalgic syndrome" or "Madrid syndrome" as described by Peraita are discussed, and the syndrome is presented in relation to...

This article offers a panoramic assessment of the history of schizophrenia. It describes first the foundations of the conventional clinical concept as in the classic works of Emil Kraepelin, Eugen Bleuler and Kurt Schneider. Afterwards, and as a counterpoint to its external or objective characterization, the article presents some of the most notabl...

This article offers a panoramic assessment of the history of schizophrenia. It describes first the foundations of the conventional clinical concept as in the classic works of Emil Kraepelin, Eugen Bleuler and Kurt Schneider. Afterwards, and as a counterpoint to its external or objective characterization, the article presents some of the most notabl...

We describe a nutritional intervention by the Rockefeller Foundation's International Health Division in Spain after the Spanish Civil War, delineating the relationships between the technicians sent by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Spanish health authorities. We analyze reports of the nutritional situation in Spain in the early 1940s and the de...

Lathyrism is a chronic disease involving spastic paralysis of the lower limbs caused by the prolonged consumption of large amounts of flour made from grass pea, or almorta as it is known in Spain. In Spain it became an epidemic in the early post-civil war years, and this gave rise to a series of studies and clinical descriptions of unquestionable m...

This paper makes a fresh analysis of the work of the French alienist J. E. D. Esquirol. In addition to a critical study of his classification of mental diseases, it analyses his main contributions to semiology: the difference between hallucinations and illusions, etc., and it also places the psychiatric clinic into the context of the so-called anat...

In this work we will analyze the changes of mental hospitals as being the central column of psychiatry as well as knowledge-creating centres. In order to achieve it we will take into account all their conflicts and contradictions during their first 150 years. We will therefore analyze some of the historiographycal controversies regarding the role o...

These two volumes are a good example of the intensive historical research carried out on Spanish public health in recent times. They are, however, very different from each other regarding both their perspective and their conclusions. The work of Esteban Rodríguez Ocaña is, without doubt, a strong reference point within this scholarly trend due to t...

In this work we will analyze the changes of mental hospitals as being the central column of psychiatry as well as knowledge- creating centres. In order to achieve it we will take into account all their conflicts and contradictions during their first 150 years. We will therefore analyze some of the historiographycal controversies regarding the role...

El papel de la nutrición en el descenso de la mortalidad que acompañó las transiciones demográficas y sanitarias de las poblaciones europeo-occidentales, ha suscitado uno de los mayores debates entre los historiadores de la población. En España, destacan las investigaciones empíricas y analíticas que, desde el campo de la historia económica, han in...

La alimentación y la nutrición han sido determinantes en el proceso de humanización de nuestra especie y son, en la actualidad, objeto de atención y debate: carencia y abundancia, seguridad alimentaria, dieta y salud o alimentos modificados genéticamente.

Le film Ma fille Hildegart (Mi hija Hildegart, 1977) est basé sur un fascinant fait divers qui bouleversa la société espagnole de la Seconde République : l’assassinat d’une jeune femme par sa mère et le procès qui suivit. L’histoire de la relation entre la mère (Aurora Rodríguez) et sa fille (Hildegart) et son terrible dénouement attira l’intérêt d...

Reseña del libro: FOUCAULT, Michel. El poder psiquiátrico, Madrid, Akal, 2005. 381 pp. Foucault, no creo que quepa ninguna duda, es un clásico de las ciencias humanas del siglo XX. Se puede ser o no ser foucaultiano, se puede ser antifoucaultiano, pero su obra no puede dejar indiferente a los que, desde ámbitos de especialización diversos (historia...

Psychiatric care and mental hygiene in Spain during the 1930s was influenced by the presence of ideological, social, and political polarization. This peculiarity of Spain's history makes it impossible to find more or less uniformed discourses and attitudes in the country. This paper analyzes the eugenic discourse developed by Spanish pro-Fascist ps...

The present paper aims to discuss the role that some doctors played in the development of children's << sexual education >> in 1930s Spain. Special attention is paid to approaches of a psychoanalytical inspiration that have been overlooked by medical and general historiography, in the authors' opinion. In order to carry out this aim, the authors st...

Europe was at the first line in the psychiatric assistance and in the academic level on psychiatric historiography. In the last few years, we are seeing a revival in the researching in this field. In this article the authors review the publications on this subject in books and journals as well as the currents in the present psychiatric historiograp...

Al entrar en la Academia Nacional de Medicina de París, puede admirarse el conocido cuadro de Charles Müller (1815-1892) en el que se representa a Philippe Pinel (1745-1826) ordenando liberar de sus cadenas a los locos de Bicêtre. Igualmen-te, en la Salpêtrière, se conserva la no menos célebre pintura de Tony Robert-Fleury (1837-1912) en la que el...

The present paper aims to discuss the role that some doctors played in the development of children's «sexual education» in 1930s Spain. Special attention is paid to approaches of a psychoanalytical inspiration that have been overlooked by medical and general historiography, in the authors' opinion. In order to carry out this aim, the authors study...

The goal of this paper is to made an historical analysis about the conception of the human body in relationship with clinical psychiatry. We focused our study on some specially significant aspects of the decimononic alienism, as the "somatization" of the mind. We advance an anthropological interpretation of the comprehension of the body in the cros...

The goal of this paper is to made an historical analysis about the conception of the human body in relationship with clinical psychiatry. We focused our study on some specially significant aspects of the decimononic alienism, as the "somatization" of the mind. We advance an anthropological interpretation of the comprehension of the body in the cros...

Este trabajo pretende una reflexión sobre la verdadera dimensión científica de José María Esquerdo. A la luz de las escasas fuentes disponibles, se lleva a cabo un análisis crítico de sus aportaciones a la teoría y a la clínica �que vienen a completar otros acercamientos previos centrados en aspectos políticos, profesionales y asistenciales�. Se ha...

This paper analyses the role of housing as determining factor for the welfare of Madrid's population during the change of the XIXth century to the XXth century. Through medical reports and the contributions of hygienists and social physicians, it will be demonstrated that unhealthy housing in Madrid became a negative factor for the mortality and th...

This paper analyses the role of housing as determining factor for the welfare of Madrid's population during the change of the XIXth century to the XXth century. Through medical reports and the contributions of hygienists and social physicians, it will be demonstrated that unhealthy housing in Madrid became a negative factor for the mortality and th...

The aim of this article is to highlight the importance of the history of public health for public health research and practice itself. After summarily reviewing the current great vitality of the history of collective health oriented initiatives, we explain three particular features of the historical vantage point in public health, namely the import...

El trabajo analiza algunas formas de abordar el estudio de las historias clínicas como fuente para la historia de la psiquiatría. Desde las basadas en las propuestas de Pedro Laín centradas en el «caso ejemplar» que permite situar las patografías en el marco del pensamiento y de las «mentalidades» médicas, hasta la utilización de las historias clín...

p>En este artículo se hace una reflexión sobre las principales corrientes historiográficas que ha abordado la historia de la asistencia psi­quiátrica en Españaa, desde las más panegiris­tas y hagiográficas, hasta las que, inspiradas en la escuela de Annales o en las propuestas de corte foucaultiano, han ido construyendo una historia social y crític...

Only two years before the appearance of On the Origin of Species, the French alienist B. A. Morel unveiled his theory of the degeneration of the human species. He conjoined anthropological and philosophical concepts of Rousseau and Buffon, Prosper Lucas’s notion of “dissimilar” heredity, plus some others drawn from Lamarckian evolutionism, and put...

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The aim of this paper is to analyse some aspects of the psychiatric and medical-social discourse on the relationship between childhood and insanity in Spain at the end of nineteenth century and during the first third of the twentieth century. We study the principal theories about degenerate children (delinquent childhood and anormal childhood) base...

Numerosos estudios han puesto de relieve las particulares características de la legislación que rigió la asistencia de los alienados en España desde la segunda mitad del siglo XIX hasta la 11 República. De hecho, durante todo este período y a diferencia de otros países europeos, no existió una ley específica que regulase la asistencia de los aliena...

The author analyzes the scientific and philosophical debates in postrevolutionary France on the role played by the process of socialization in human intellectual development. In addition, he discusses the way in which the controversy on wild children —specifically on the case of Víctor de l'Aveyron—, constituted a sort of "foundation myth" for such...

The author analyzes the scientific and philosophical debates in postrevolutionary France on the role played by the process of socialization in human intellectual development. In addition, he discusses the way in which the controversy on wild children - specifically on the case of Victor de l'Aveyron -, constituted a sort of "foundation myth" for su...

The present paper tries to study some of the basic rudiments that contributed to the change of paradigm about mental deficiency produced in the first decades of the XX^th century. Taking as main sources the Binet and Simon's contributions from France, and the Sante de Sanctis' from Italy, it's analysed the construction of the category "ab...

The present paper tries to study some of the basic rudiments that contributed to the change of paradigm about mental deficiency produced in the first decades of the XXth century. Taking as main sources the Binet and Simon's contributions from France, and the Sante de Sanctis' from Italy, it's analysed the construction of the category "abnormal chil...

During the Spanish civil war, the military psichiatric services of Franco's army carried out psychological and anthropological surveys in a wide set of war prisioners, belonging to the International Brigade, as well as in a shorter series of political prisioners. Such surveys, published and divulged beetween 1938-1939, concluded with the definition...

This article analyzes the role of mental health in the definition of a new model of psychiatric care, which incorporated principles of prophylaxis and public health, and was intended to replace the previous paradigm of confinement. We study the main theoretical and organizational proposals that arose in Spain during the 1920's, both in Catalonia an...

Este trabajo intenta analizar el proceso de elaboración de la concepción de la lo­cura como enfermedad mental, estudiando el desarrollo de las ideas psiquiátricas y su necesaria relación con la sociedad, tanto en Francia como en Inglaterra, dos de los núcleos esenciales de este pensamiento en la Europa del siglo XIX. Se intenta comprender tanto los...

Examines the degree to which the idea of mental illness as a process linked to anatomical changes was incorporated into Spanish psychiatric and forensic thinking of the 19th and 20th centuries. The effect of this incorporation on the social influences of doctors and the development of criminal law is also discussed. After years of court resistance...

Discusses the situation of the artist in the late 19th century and the artist's relationship with contemporary French psychiatry at the time. During this period, a degenerationist doctrine developed that attempted to prove explanations of the relationships between genius and madness from the standpoint of the new positivist science. The author conc...

Examines the relationships between French psychiatric theories of degeneration and Italian criminal anthropology (ICA), as led by C. Lombroso. ICA elaborated complex theories on delinquency that ignored the social factors underlying criminality. The same criteria were used to judge clinical observations, crimes, strikes, and even artistic creations...

Given the dramatic sanitary situation that characterized Spain during the Restauration period, and within the framework of a general proposal for the reform and the modernization of the health administration, the debates concerning the creation of a Ministry of Health played a significant role in the medical literature of the first third of the XX...

After a brief analysis of the principal contradictions in the model of the National Health Service in the industrialised, capitalist countries which, after the second world war, acceded to the Welfare State, we shall study, within the framework of the so-called "epidemiological revolution", the way in which a degradation of the medical model of Soc...