Ortega i la tecnomedicina

Ortega i la tecnomedicin

Reseñas

Índex de l'obra ressenyada: Ricardo CAMPOS, El caso Morillo : crimen, locura y subjetividad en la España de la Restauración. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas / Frenia; 201

“El espíritu fáustico del mundo técnico”. Enfermedad mental y crítica cultural en la España de Franco

Taking into account the almost constitutive affinity of mental medicine and cultural criticism, it should not be surprising that, given its particular conflict with modernity, General Franco’s dictatorship was a period of intense flowering of conservative psychiatric essay writing, Starting from the fears of a possible physical and moral regression of “Hispanity” due to the artificiality of modern life, the infiltration of liberalism and the erosion of traditional values, the genre shifted its interest towards an analysis of the contemporary “neurotic society” that, with philosophical reference points such as Ortega or Heidegger, pointed to the excesses of instrumental reason, “mechanization” and the “hyper-technification” of the modern world as one of the main sources of malaise and psychic suffering.Teniendo en cuenta la querencia casi constitutiva de la medicina mental por la crítica cultural, no debe sorprender que, dentro de su particular litigio con la modernidad, la dictadura franquista fuese un periodo de intensa floración del ensayismo psiquiátrico conservador. Partiendo de los temores de una posible regresión física y moral de la “Hispanidad” a causa de la artificiosidad de la vida moderna, la infiltración del liberalismo y la erosión de los valores tradicionales, el género fue desplazando su interés hacia un análisis de la “sociedad neurotizada” que, con referentes filosóficos como Ortega o Heidegger, apuntaba a los excesos de la razón instrumental, el “maquinismo” y la “hipertecnificación” del mundo moderno como una de las principales fuentes de malestar y sufrimiento psíquico

La medicina de las pasiones en la España del siglo XIX

Este artículo reconstruye el importante lugar ocupado por las pasiones en los discursos teóricos y las retóricas profesionales de la medicina española del siglo XIX. Con el fin de ampliar sus recursos explicativos y terapéuticos frente a la enfermedad, pero, sobre todo, de avalar su competencia como expertos en el estudio y la regulación de las pasiones, los médicos españoles asumieron y difundieron toda una serie de planteamientos (como la necesidad de su investigación fisiológica, la insistencia en su potencial patógeno y en la peligrosidad social de su contagio, o la importancia de su análisis semiológico, su diagnóstico diferencial y su terapéutica específica) que no sólo aportaron los fundamentos conceptuales de disciplinas y prácticas emergentes como el alienismo, la higiene o el tratamiento moral, sino que cabría verlos retrospectivamente como anticipadores de presupuestos centrales de las modernas ciencias de la mente. Sin embargo, esta medicalización de las pasiones tuvo finalmente como consecuencia su paulatino descrédito frente al concepto (supuestamente más fisiológico, exento de consideraciones morales y, por tanto, más objetivo) de las emociones, hasta el punto que, para finales del siglo XIX, las pasiones habían desaparecido prácticamente de los discursos científicos en torno a la afectividad y el psiquismo

Introduction to the Special Issue “Cultural Histories of Science in Franco’s Spain”

Este artículo está sujeto a una licencia CC BY 4.0Peer reviewe

Sense and sensitivity of double beta decay experiments

The search for neutrinoless double beta decay is a very active field in which the number of proposals for next-generation experiments has proliferated. In this paper we attempt to address both the sense and the sensitivity of such proposals. Sensitivity comes first, by means of proposing a simple and unambiguous statistical recipe to derive the sensitivity to a putative Majorana neutrino mass, m_bb. In order to make sense of how the different experimental approaches compare, we apply this recipe to a selection of proposals, comparing the resulting sensitivities. We also propose a "physics-motivated range" (PMR) of the nuclear matrix elements as a unifying criterium between the different nuclear models. The expected performance of the proposals is parametrized in terms of only four numbers: energy resolution, background rate (per unit time, isotope mass and energy), detection efficiency, and bb isotope mass. For each proposal, both a reference and an optimistic scenario for the experimental performance are studied. In the reference scenario we find that all the proposals will be able to partially explore the degenerate spectrum, without fully covering it, although four of them (KamLAND-Zen, CUORE, NEXT and EXO) will approach the 50 meV boundary. In the optimistic scenario, we find that CUORE and the xenon-based proposals (KamLAND-Zen, EXO and NEXT) will explore a significant fraction of the inverse hierarchy, with NEXT covering it almost fully. For the long term future, we argue that Xe-based experiments may provide the best case for a 1-ton scale experiment, given the potentially very low backgrounds achievable and the expected scalability to large isotope masses.Comment: 30 pages, 12 figures, 6 table

Zerasca sheep: environment, characteristics and production

The Zeri ewe is an indigenous Italian breed that is spread throughout the homonymous area located in northwest Tuscany. This article presents the history and evolution of Zerasca sheep, describes the breed’s characteristics in terms of somatic and productive traits, managerial and health practices, meat quality; moreover it underlines its contribution to the preservation of the rural land and population of the Zeri district. First documentation on this breed dates back to the 19th Century (Antonelli, 1845). Zerasca breed has a medium-large size with white fleece. Males present horns while in females can be absent. Currently Zerasca ovine population totals more than 2,000 heads. Sheep husbandry is currently predominant in Zeri area thanks to the great availability of woody vegetation (oak, chestnut, hazel, alder and beech trees), meadows and pastures. Animals’ nutrition depends mostly on grazing pastures, infact flocks are generally supported only with a little nutritional supplementation. The first typical production is the heavy lamb that is gaining more and more relevance thanks to its excellent meat quality, unique in taste; infact, Zeri lamb is included in the list of Slow Food Presidia, reflecting the recognized quality of this product in the world.Most of shepherds jointed in a consortium for the valorization and safeguarding of Zerasca sheep and lambs, whose regulation points towards the implementation of extensive farming systems with an optimal exploitation of local pasture resources. One of the most important problem that Zerasca sheep farmers often complain is represented by gastrointestinal parasitism, almost endemic in sheep husbandry and particularly in sheep raised under extensive systems. Today, “Zeri lamb” has a considerable economic impact on its territory, ensuring increasing profits for shepherds. The aim of this review is to collect information about a native breed in endangered status that it is gaining importance thanks to the high-quality of products

Adaptation dynamics of the quasispecies model

We study the adaptation dynamics of an initially maladapted population evolving via the elementary processes of mutation and selection. The evolution occurs on rugged fitness landscapes which are defined on the multi-dimensional genotypic space and have many local peaks separated by low fitness valleys. We mainly focus on the Eigen's model that describes the deterministic dynamics of an infinite number of self-replicating molecules. In the stationary state, for small mutation rates such a population forms a {\it quasispecies} which consists of the fittest genotype and its closely related mutants. The quasispecies dynamics on rugged fitness landscape follow a punctuated (or step-like) pattern in which a population jumps from a low fitness peak to a higher one, stays there for a considerable time before shifting the peak again and eventually reaches the global maximum of the fitness landscape. We calculate exactly several properties of this dynamical process within a simplified version of the quasispecies model.Comment: Proceedings of Statphys conference at IIT Guwahati, to be published in Praman

Los límites de la tecnocracia : la modernización autoritaria de la asistencia psiquiátrica en la España del segundo franquismo

From the 1950s on, the traditional approach to mental hygiene, essentially aimed at the prophylaxis of madness within the framework of a seriesof interventionist policies of social defence, gave way to a much more ambitious and comprehensive project that aspired to promote the emotional balance and psychosocial performance of individuals in the context of an increasingly socialized health rhetoric and care networks. In second period of Francoist Spain, these ideas inspired and guided the activities of the National Board of Psychiatric Care (PANAP), which launched a modest program of mental health education and promoted various initiatives for improving psychiatric care. This article analyses these activities in the context of the deployment of authoritarian and technocratic government strategies and examines their incompatibility with the new culture of mental health.A partir de la década de 1950, los viejos planteamientos de la higiene mental, dirigidos esencialmente a la profilaxis de la locura en el marco de una serie de políticas intervencionistas de defensa social, fueron dando paso a un proyecto mucho más ambicioso y comprensivo que aspiraba a promover el equilibrio emocional y el desempeño psicosocial de los individuos en el contexto de unas retóricas de la salud y unas redes de atención crecientemente socializadas. En la España del segundo franquismo, el nuevo ideario inspiró y orientó las actividades del Patronato Nacional de Asistencia Psiquiátrica (PANAP), que puso en marcha un modesto programa de educación para la salud mental y auspició diversas iniciativas de modernización y reforma asistencial. El presente artículo analiza estas actividades en el marco del despliegue de la gubernamentalidad autoritaria y tecnocrática por parte del segundo franquismo y examina su inanidad a la vista de la incompatibilidad esencial de dichas estrategias de gobierno con la nueva cultura de la salud mental