Edipo y sus psiquiatras. Evidencias históricas en contra de la originalidad del tópico freudiano: Joseph Raymond Gasquet (1837-1902) y el Edipo Rey de Sófocles / Oedipus and his psychiatrists

ABSTRACT

Introduction Over a hundred years have elapsed since Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams was first published. Publication of this work obviously marked a new stage in the history of psychiatry and psychology. Since then, the Oedipus complex has been one of the pillars supporting the psychoanalytical view of the mind and a model for understanding the normal development of individuals as well as psychopathology. Many historians and psychoanalytic scholars believed that Freud was the first to suggest a pathway to understanding psychopathology by using characters from the theater as models for mental illness. However, in the second half of the nineteenth century, psychiatry had already considered the interface linking the sciences of the mind to the works of the great dramatists as a topic for study. Sigmund Freud and his desert island The ignorance of the contributions of XIXth psychiatry How did Freud manage to chart a new course in an area that had already been explored and described by the psychiatrists that preceded him? The answer may lie in Freud's medical and intellectual isolation. A propos of this, there is an interesting analogy he draws between himself and a famous character <analysis is my creation; for ten years I was the only person who concerned himself whit it […] Meanwhile, like Robinson Crusoe, I settled down as comfortably as possible on my desert island.>> It is important to note that in Daniel Defoe's novel, Robinson Crusoe managed to live with at least some of the comforts available to the people of his time. Thanks to his ingenuity, he was able to obtain a series of artifacts. Likewise, Freud devised psychological theories and explanations that already existed in his time and even beforehand. The difference was that Freud thought he owned the patent. Joseph Raymond Gasquet (1837-1902) and a model to understand psychopathology Oedipus Rex Born on 24 August 1837, Joseph Raymond Gasquet was the oldest son of Raymond Gasquet, a surgeon who spent most of his working life in London. Gasquet was a brilliant student, studying medicine at University College Hospital in London and graduating with distinction in 1859. After the opening of St. George's Retreat, Gasquet accepted the post of assistant physician and played an active role in the growth and development of this asylum. He was a great admirer of the work of Charcot, whom he regarded as <physicians.>> As a result, Gasquet, like Freud, had a special interest in the phenomena of hypnosis and hysteria. He contributed to the dissemination of the knowledge of British psychiatry, writing for various publications. He spent his free time studying philosophy, theology, and universal literature, while his extensive knowledge of classical works enabled him to become familiar with ancient and modern schools of thought. In April 1872, Gasquet published an article on The Madmen of the Greek Theatre in the Journal of Mental Science and a few months later, in 1873, published a continuation of this work subtitled The Ajax and Oedipus of Sophocles. Both articles, published in a well-known specialist journal, were several years ahead of the psychoanalysts interested in looking to Greek theater for models for psychopathology. Gasquet published his observations on Oedipus 26 years before Freud, also contributing studies on Orestes, Hercules and Cassandra to the same journal. Gasquet vs. Freud contrasts and similarities with psychoanalytic thought Due to Gasquet's significant contributions to the Dublin Review, two years after his death, a compilation of several of his works was published in a book called Studies Contributed to the <Review.>> This work included an article called Hypnotism written in April 1891, in which Gasquet attributes the start of the scientific study of hypnotism to Charcot. The most interesting fact about the article on Hypnotism is that Gasquet dealt with the issue of the unconscious nearly a decade before Freud published his descriptions. His deductions about the unconscious were so accurate and profound that, through Gasquet, we seem to be listening to the father of psychoanalysis. Another aspect worth mentioning is the seriousness with which Gasquet felt hypnosis should be used. Here we find an enormous contrast with Freud who, four years after Gasquet wrote this, would confess to his abuse of this form of therapy in Studies on Hysteria. Like Freud, Gasquet was a psychiatrist profoundly interested in the subject of religion. Gasquet analyzed the issue of religion in works such as The Physiological Psychology of St. Thomas, The Present Position of Arguments for the Existence of God, Lightfoot's St. Ignatius and the Roman Primacy, The Canon of the New Testament and The Cures at Lourdes. In this last work, Gasquet described his experience of examining several cases of miraculous cures of pilgrims that visited the city of Lourdes. It is also important to mention that Gasquet described slips of the tongue (lapsus linguae), attributing them to an unconscious origin, over a decade before Freud. In a footnote to his article Lightfoot's St. Ignatius and the Roman Primacy, written in 1887, Gasquet highlighted William Cureton's mistake in quoting a Greek text from a letter from St. Ignatius <by >> Lastly, we should mention that Gasquet's interpretation of the myth of Oedipus significantly contrasted with Freud's a few years later. Gasquet did not highlight parricide and incest as Freud did but rather Oedipus's self-mutilation in the presence of a high degree of mental anguish. From Gasquet's perspective, this self-mutilating behavior, which some have called the <Syndrome>>, could well be an <<Oedipus complex>> applicable to seriously disturbed patients and all the mentally ill that resort to self-injuries to certain extent.

RESUMEN

Introducción Han transcurrido más de cien años desde que La Interpretación de los Sueños, de Sigmund Freud, apareció por primera vez. Podemos afirmar, sin temor a equivocarnos, que la publicación de esta obra marcó una nueva época en la historia de la psiquiatría y la psicología. Desde entonces, el complejo de Edipo ha sido uno de los pilares que sustentan la visión psicoanalítica de la mente y un modelo para entender tanto el desarrollo normal de los individuos como la psicopatología. Muchos historiadores y estudiosos del psicoanálisis creyeron que Freud marcó por primera vez un camino para comprender la psicopatología, al tomar a los personajes del teatro como modelos de la enfermedad mental. Sigmund Freud y su isla desierta La ignorancia de las aportaciones de la psiquiatría decimonónica Freud ignoraba las aportaciones al estudio de la interfase de la psiquiatría y la creación literaria realizadas por algunos psiquiatras que lo antecedieron. ¿Cómo es que Freud creyó trazar un nuevo camino en un área ya explorada y descrita por los psiquiatras del siglo diecinueve? Quizá la respuesta esté en el propio aislamiento médico e intelectual de Freud. Respecto a esto, resulta interesante la analogía que él hace de sí mismo con un célebre personaje <psicoanálisis es, en efecto, obra mía. Durante diez años fui el único en ocuparme de él […] Entretanto, Robinsón en mi isla desierta, me las arreglé lo más cómodamente posible.>> Joseph Raymond Gasquet (1837-1902) y un modelo para entender la psicopatología Edipo Rey En abril de 1872, Gasquet publicó en el Journal of Mental Science un artículo titulado Los locos del teatro griego, y unos meses más tarde, en enero de 1873, una continuación de dicho trabajo subtitulado Ayax y Edipo de Sófocles. Ambas publicaciones, aparecidas en una revista especializada y reconocida, se adelantaron por muchos años a la intención psicoanalítica de mirar hacia al teatro griego en busca de modelos de psicopatología. Gasquet publicó sus observaciones sobre Edipo veintisiete años antes que Freud, también publicó en la misma revista estudios sobre los personajes de Orestes, Hércules y Casandra. Hoy sabemos que el estudio de los personajes del teatro griego nace de la psiquiatría británica por influencia de Gasquet y no del psicoanálisis. Gasquet vs. Freud contrastes y similitudes con el pensamiento psicoanalítico Al analizar el personaje de Edipo, Gasquet hizo un paralelismo con El Rey Lear de Shakespeare, en el sentido de que ambos dramas se inician con un rey que goza de poder y buena fortuna, sin que ambos sean capaces de vaticinar su infortunio. Gasquet resaltó, no el parricidio y el incesto como lo hizo Freud, sino la automutilación que ejecutó Edipo ante la presencia de un grado elevado de angustia mental. Este comportamiento automutilador, el cual ha sido llamado por algunos <<síndrome de Van Gogh>> bien podría ser, desde la perspectiva de Gasquet, un <<complejo de Edipo>>, aplicable a pacientes gravemente perturbados y a todos aquellos enfermos mentales que en cierta medida incurren en autolesiones. Sin embargo, la principal interpretación que hizo Gasquet del mito de Edipo se centró en un aspecto positivo de la tragedia, un detalle no observado por Freud y que tiene gran relación con el concepto de resiliencia introducido por Rutter cien años más tarde. Gasquet asumió que Sófocles <moral.>> Conclusión Contrariamente a lo que han creído los seguidores del psicoanálisis, no fue Freud el primer psiquiatra en estudiar la psicopatología de Edipo, ni en crear un puente entre la ciencia de la psiquiatría y las humanidades. Joseph Raymond Gasquet, prescindiendo de las teorías psicoanalíticas, supo explorar los terrenos que Freud más tarde creyó descubrir.