Anthology of Venezuelan psychiatry

Abstract

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.

Keywords:

• Venezuelan authors in Psychiatry
• historiography
• history of Venezuelan psychiatry
• anthology

Acknowledgement

This chapter from Carlos Arvelo’s Internal pathology course was first published in 1839 by the Central University of Caracas, Printing Corsen.

Acknowledgement

This paper was first published in 1958 as Pabras completes de Lisandro Alvarado, volume VII, by the Ministry of Education, Caracas.

Acknowledgements

This paper first appeared as Los viajeros de Indias, published in 1979 by Monte Avila Editores, Caracas.

Acknowledgements

This paper was first published as ‘La estructura familiar atípica y el fracaso histórico cultural en Venezuela’ by J.L. Vethencourt in the journal Heterotopía, published by the Centro de Investigaciones Populares in Caracas. Reproduced with permission.

Acknowledgements

This paper first appeared as Los nombres del exilio, published by Monte Ávila Editores Latinoamericana, Caracas.