Cuando la psiquiatr¡a no libera ni alivia: la dramática vida de un psiquiatra escritor / When psychiatry neither liberates nor alleviates: the dramatic life of a psychiatrist-writer

RESUMEN

Dentro del numeroso grupo de psiquiatras-escritores a lo largo de la historia, se examina la vida y obra de Oskar Panizza (1853-1921), nacido en Baviera, condisc¡pulo de Kraepelin, alumno de von Gudden y promisor cl¡nico e investigador que, sin embargo, prefiri¢ y persigui¢ intensamente una profunda vocaci¢n literaria (Figura 1). Autor de novelas, ensayos y obras de teatro, Panizza exhibi¢ un temperamento audaz, car cter apasionado y cr¡tico que tradujo en sus obras y en una creciente actividad period¡stica en la que emergi¢ también clara ideaci¢n paranoide, experiencias alucinatorias y violencia dirigida contra autoridades pol¡ticas y religiosas de Alemania y Europa. Hab¡a contraido s¡filis en sus años jóvenes y por ello, se plantean posibilidades diagnósticas de trastorno mental vinculada a esta enfermedad o a un cuadro psicótico de fondo. Muri¢ pobre y abandonado en un hospital psiquiátrico de Bayreuth. Su obra ha recibido reconocimiento tard¡o como precursora de conceptos académicos modernos de antropolog¡a sexual y pensamiento psico-filosófico.

ABSTRACT

Within the numerous group of psychiatrist-writers across history, the life and work of Oskar Panizza (1853-1921) are examined. Born in Bavaria, a classmate of Kraepelin in medical school and, a disciple of von Gudden and apromising clinican/investigator, Panizza, however, pursued an intense literary vocation and wrote novels, essaysand plays. He exhibited a bold temperament, a passionate and critical caracter that transferred to his Works and to a growing journalistic activity in which also emerged a clear paranoid ideation, hallucinatory experiences andviolence directed against politial and religious authorities from Germany and Europe. He had acquired syphilisin his youth and, for such reason, diagnostic possibilities of a mental disorder related to it or to another psychotic condition are discussed. He died poor and abandoned in a Bayreauth hospital. His work has received delayedre cognition as precursor of modern academic concepts on sexual anthropology and psycho-philosophical thinking.