Salud y Enfermedad Mental: Del Corpus Hippocraticum a una aproximación termodinámica / Health and Mental Illness: From Corpus Hippocraticum to a thermodynamic approach

Se establece una relación entre conceptos básicos acerca de salud y enfermedad mental en los Tratados Hipocráticos y los elementos actuales de la termodinámica y de la cibernética, enlace que se formula a través de los aportes de autores como Maturana y Valera (autopoiesis y teleonomía) o Bergson (regularidades vs indeterminsmos). Se definen y caracterizan los fenómenos anancásticos y los estocásticos, destacándose su relación complementaria. Con un enfoque termodinámico se define a la enfermedad mental como una estructura que se impone hegemónicamente sobre el resto de las actividades mentales y consume la energía que regula el metabolismo restante de la persona afectada. Se aportan evidencias clínicas de las bondades de esta óptica, presentándose, por ejemplo, la ansiedad como una crisis entrópica y la depresión como interferencia de la teleonomía , al tiempo que los trastornos obsesivo-compulsivos son descritos desde una perspectiva cibernética. A lo largo del texto se le confiere mayor relevancia a la noción de la enfermedad mental como pathos hegemónico que absorbe recursos energéticos y disminuye las posibilidades de adaptación del afectado a su medio externo y de éxito en el afrontamiento de sus propias tensiones.

A link is traced between the basic concepts on health and mental illness in the Hippocratic Treaties and the current elements of thermodynamics and cybernetics, through the contributions of authors such as Maturana and Valera (autopoiesis and teleonomy) or Bergson (regularities vs. indeterminism). Anankastic and stochastic phenomena are defined and characterized, highlighting their complementary connection. Following a thermodynamic approach, a mental illness is defined as a structure that imposes itself on the rest of the mental activities and consumes the energy that regulates the remnants of the affected person s metabolism. Clinical evidences of the benefits of this perspective are given, presenting, for instance, anxiety as entropic crisis and depression as an interference of teleonomy , while obsessive-compulsive disorders are described from the cybernetic perspective. Throughout the text, the greatest relevance is conferred to the notion of mental illness as a hegemonic pathos that absorbs energy resources and diminishes the affected individuals possibilities of adaptation to their external environment, and of successfully coping with their own tensions.

Anthology of Venezuelan psychiatry.

Reception of Psychiatry in Venezuela since the 19th Century to the late 20th Century merits a historical approach. The following work proposes to research some of the very origins of Venezuelan psychiatry and its possible influence on contemporary mental health practice. Through documental research, the early works of local authors from the 19th Century through 20th Century finals: Carlos Arvelo, Lisandro Alvarado, Francisco Herrera Luque, Jose Luis Vethencourt and Jose Solanes, are subjected to study. This journey illustrates a descriptive panoramic view which allows to better comprenhend the current state of our psychiatry. In a brief introduction the most important events are described, since the arrival of Pinel's ideas, followed by the early research paperworks published and the beginnings of the academic teachings of this specialty in Venezuela and displaying the main contemporary research groups thorough the country.