Homosexualidad masculina y examinación médica en la Casa de Menores de Santiago, 1929-1942

En 1929 la Ley de Protección de Menores creó en Chile instituciones y mecanismos que forjaron y legitimaron prácticas disciplinares de vigilancia, regulación e intervención de la infancia. La sexualidad de los menores ocupó allí un lugar privilegiado, ya que era clave en la estabilidad de un proyecto de nación que suponía la reproducción biológica y social de la familia patriarcal, heterocentrada, hegemónica y debidamente jerarquizada. El estudio de los Informes Médicos de la Casa de Menores de Santiago, conservados en los expedientes judiciales del Tribunal Especial de Menores de la ciudad para el periodo 1929-1942, permite describir las examinaciones médicas de la homosexualidad masculina; además reflexionaremos, según artículos escritos en la época por médicos y otros actores relevantes, sobre las nociones que subtienden estas prácticas, sus objetivos y finalidades.Since 1929, the Chilean Minors Protection Law established institutions and mechanisms where disciplinary practices of surveillance, regulation, and intervention of childhood were forged and legitimized. The sexuality of minors played a significant role, since it was key in the stability of a project of nation that was based on the biological and social reproduction of the patriarchal, hetero-normative, hegemonic, and hierarchical family. Through the study of the medical reports of the Santiago House of Minors preserved in the judicial records of the Special Minors Court of the city between 1929 and 1942, this paperanalysesthe medical examination of male homosexuality. Additionally, through the discussion of articles written at the time by doctors and other relevant actors, this paper will reflect on the notions underlying these practices, and their objectives and purposes.Depuis 1929, la loi de protection de mineurs instaure des mécanismes et des institutions dans lesquels les pratiques disciplinaires de surveillance, de régulation et d’intervention sur l’enfance sont forgées et légitimées. La sexualité des mineurs a joué un rôle privilégié car elle était un élément clef pour la stabilité d’un projet de nation qui supposait une reproduction biologique et sociale de la famille patriarcale, hétérocentrée, hégémonique et dûment hiérarchisée. L’étude des rapports médicaux de la maison d’arrêt pour mineurs de Santiago, conservés dans les dossiers judiciaires du Tribunal Spécial pour Mineurs de la ville entre 1929 et 1942, permet de décrire les examens médicaux de l’homosexualité masculine. De plus, à partir d’articles écrits à l’époque par des médecins et d’autres acteurs d’importance, notre contribution interroge les notions qui sous-tendent ces pratiques, leurs objectifs et leurs finalités

Presentación Dossier

“Los expedientes judiciales, como fuentes de investigación histórica, abren posibilidades de indagar aspectos marginales de la vida social: aquello que no marcha, aquello disonante, aquello que escapa a las fronteras de lo aceptable, incluso de lo inteligible. Llegan a la justicia quienes, por distintos motivos, han entrado en conflicto con las coacciones sociales que se plasman en las legislaciones y, desde esa experiencia de desencuentro, a través de las exigencias del sistema judicial, acc..

La dictadura militar en la historia oficial del psicoanálisis chileno: sobre la construcción de un pathos discursivo

Drawing from the analysis of a controversy developed before the Congress of the International Psychoanalytical Association, held in Santiago, Chile, in 1999, this article attempts to retrace the ways in which the military dictatorship appears in the corpus of texts with historical inspiration produced within the Chilean Psychoanalytical Association. The building of a discursive pathos is thus revealed, characterized by denial, hasty search for consensus and the use of euphemisms. Nevertheless, not only from the ghosts of the local psychoanalytic society is this pathos constructed. It also feeds on institutional policies implemented by the International Association since Nazism and on the rhetoric of reconciliation elaborated in Chile since the recovery of democracy.A partir del análisis de una controversia suscitada en los preparativos del Congreso de la Asociación Psicoanalítica Internacional, realizado en Santiago de Chile en julio de 1999, este artículo intenta trazar los modos en los que la dictadura militar de Pinochet aparece en el corpus de textos con vocación histórica producidos en el seno de la Asociación Psicoanalítica Chilena. Se revela, así, la construcción de un pathos discursivo, caracterizado por la negación, la búsqueda apresurada del consenso y el eufemismo, que sin embargo no sólo nace de los fantasmas de la única sociedad psicoanalítica local de la época, sino que se alimenta de las políticas institucionales implementadas por la asociación internacional a partir del nazismo y por la retórica de la reconciliación elaborada en Chile desde la recuperación de la democracia

The light variability of the helium strong star HD 37776 as a result of its inhomogeneous elemental surface distribution

We simulate light curves of the helium strong chemically peculiar star HD 37776 assuming that the observed periodic light variations originate as a result of inhomogeneous horizontal distribution of chemical elements on the surface of a rotating star. We show that chemical peculiarity influences the monochromatic radiative flux, mainly due to bound-free processes. Using the model of the distribution of silicon and helium on HD 37776 surface, derived from spectroscopy, we calculate a photometric map of the surface and consequently the uvby light curves of this star. Basically, the predicted light curves agree in shape and amplitude with the observed ones. We conclude that the basic properties of variability of this helium strong chemically peculiar star can be understood in terms of the model of spots with peculiar chemical composition.Comment: 11 pages, accepted for the publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Fundamental Parameters of He-Weak and He-Strong Stars

We carried out low resolution spectroscopic observations in the wavelength range 3400-4700 A of 20 He-weak and 8 He-strong stars to determine their fundamental parameters by means of the Divan-Chalonge-Barbier (BCD) spectrophotometric system. For a few He-weak stars we also estimate the effective temperatures and the angular diameters by integrating absolute fluxes observed over a wide spectral range. Non-LTE model calculations are carried out to study the influence of the He/H abundance ratio on the emergent radiation of He-strong stars and on their Teff determination. We find that the effective temperatures, surface gravities and bolometric absolute magnitudes of He-weak stars estimated with the BCD system and the integrated flux method are in good agreement between each other, and they also agree with previous determinations based on several different methods. The mean discrepancy between the visual absolute magnitudes derived using the Hipparcos parallaxes and the BCD values is on average 0.3 mag for He-weak stars, while it is 0.5 mag for He-strong stars. For He-strong stars, we note that the BCD calibration, based on stars in the solar environment, leads to overestimated values of Teff. By means of model atmosphere calculations with enhanced He/H abundance ratios we show that larger He/H ratios produce smaller BD which naturally explains the Teff overestimation. We take advantage of these calculations to introduce a method to estimate the He/H abundance ratio in He-strong stars. The BD of HD 37479 suggests that the Teff of this star remains fairly constant as the star spectrum undergoes changes in the intensity of H and He absorption lines. Data for the He-strong star HD 66765 are reported for the first time.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&

Simone Weil: The Ethics of Affliction and the Aesthetics of Attention

For Simone Weil the invocation of ‘rights’ to address extreme human suffering–what she calls ‘affliction’–is ‘ludicrously inadequate’. Rights, Weil argues, invite a response, whereas what the afflicted require is not dialogue but simply to be heard. For Weil, hearing the ‘cry’ of the afflicted is the basis of all justice. The task of such a hearing is given over to Weil’s concept of attention, which demands an ethics of creative silence. This paper will argue that central to Weil’s ethics of attention, and thus the way she thinks we should show compassion and act justly, is the Kantian aesthetic concept of disinterestedness. I will argue that whilst Weil is influenced by Kant in multiple ways, it is his aesthetics, rather than his normative moral theory, that is most at play in her own ethical theory of attention

‘No memory, no desire’: psychoanalysis in Brazil during repressive times

Until recently, the growth and significance of Brazilian psychoanalysis has been neglected in histories of psychoanalysis. Not only is this history long and rich in its professional and cultural dimensions, but there was an especially important ‘event’ – the so-called ‘Cabernite-Lobo affair’ – that took place during the period of the military dictatorship, which can be seen as dramatising some of the issues concerning the erasure of memory in psychoanalysis, especially in connection with political difficulties. In this paper, we provide an outline of the origins and dissemination of psychoanalysis in Brazil before looking again at the Cabernite-Lobo affair in order to examine in a situated way how psychoanalysis engages with political extremism, and particularly to explore the consequences of an unthinking generalisation of the idea of ‘neutrality’ from the consulting room to the institutional setting. We draw especially on Brazilian papers in Portuguese, which have not been accessible in the English-language psychoanalytic literature

Multiplicity among chemically peculiar stars II. Cool magnetic Ap stars

We present new orbits for sixteen Ap spectroscopic binaries, four of which might in fact be Am stars, and give their orbital elements. Four of them are SB2 systems: HD 5550, HD 22128, HD 56495 and HD 98088. The twelve other stars are : HD 9996, HD 12288, HD 40711, HD 54908, HD 65339, HD 73709, HD 105680, HD 138426, HD 184471, HD 188854, HD 200405 and HD 216533. Rough estimates of the individual masses of the components of HD 65339 (53 Cam) are given, combining our radial velocities with the results of speckle interferometry and with Hipparcos parallaxes. Considering the mass functions of 74 spectroscopic binaries from this work and from the literature, we conclude that the distribution of the mass ratio is the same for cool Ap stars as for normal G dwarfs. Therefore, the only differences between binaries with normal stars and those hosting an Ap star lie in the period distribution: except for the case of HD 200405, all orbital periods are longer than (or equal to) 3 days. A consequence of this peculiar distribution is a deficit of null eccentricities. There is no indication that the secondary has a special nature, like e.g. a white dwarf.Comment: 31 pages, 15 figures, A&A accepte

Simone Weil, Œuvres complètes. Sous la direction d'André A. Devaux et de Florence de Lussy. Tome VI. Cahiers. Volume 4 (juillet 1942 -juillet 1943). La connaissance surnaturelle

Vetö Miklos. Simone Weil, Œuvres complètes. Sous la direction d'André A. Devaux et de Florence de Lussy. Tome VI. Cahiers. Volume 4 (juillet 1942 -juillet 1943). La connaissance surnaturelle. In: Revue Philosophique de Louvain. Quatrième série, tome 105, n°4, 2007. pp. 734-737