Carlos Alberto Seguín

Carlos Alberto Seguín Escobedo, (*Arequipa, 1907 - † Lima, 1995) was a prominent Peruvian psychiatrist, known in Latin America for his enormous contribution in the area of the doctor-patient relationship, psychotherapy and folk psychiatry (psychopathological expressions of cultural origin)

Biography

His parents were the journalist Alberto Gonzalo Seguín and Emma Escobedo. As a child he had to leave his homeland to go to Buenos Aires, Argentina, because his father was deported by the government of Augusto B. Leguía.

Graduated as a doctor in Argentina, Seguín published, at the age of 24, in the prestigious Ateneo publishing house, his first book entitled Treaty of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, a text of necessary consultation for students and specialists. In the province of Formosa, located north of the Argentine capital, practiced his profession for more than eight years. In 1936 he married Dora Bellisconi in Buenos Aires, with whom he had two children: Alberto Gonzalo and María Cristina.

Although he was successful as a doctor, Seguín felt a special attraction for psychiatry, a specialty that he cultivated profusely, which he reinforced with reading the works of Sigmund Freud and the observations he made on his patients.

"Curanderismo, psychoterapia, suggestion", was the name of an article that he wrote when he was still studying medicine and that marked the beginning of Seguín to continue his research on psychiatry, psychotherapy and folk psychiatry. In this regard, on one occasion, he said: & # 34; True wisdom is preserved in the old traditions of humanity, which we must rediscover, again and again, in a kind of rebirth that can revitalize our world and offer us new perspectives.

He founded the first psychiatry service in a general hospital in Peru, in the then Hospital Obrero de Lima (current Hospital Guillermo Almenara Irigoyen).

He introduced the term "therapeutic eros" as a basic condition for the establishment and success of the psychotherapeutic process and contributed enormously to taking into account the humanistic aspects in medical training. Another important aspect of his scientific work is the development of transcultural (folkloric) psychiatry, conducting studies on the importance of respect for the different cultural expressions of patients and the influence of Andean mythology on the conceptions and mental disorders of the population. Peruvian

He was a founding member of the Center for Psychosomatic Studies, the Peruvian Psychiatric Association, the Latin American Psychiatric Association Archived September 18, 2018 at the Wayback Machine, the World Society of Psychiatry and the Peruvian Association of Psychotherapy.

Works

• Lope de Aguirre, the rebel (1942).
• Introduction to Psychosomatic Medicine (1947).
• You and medicine (1957).
• Existentialism and psychiatry (1960).
• Love and psychotherapy (1963).
• Crossroads (theatrical work) (1963).
• Love, sex and marriage (1979).
• Folk Psychiatry (1979).
• The disease, the sick and the doctor (1982).
• dialectical dictionary (1987).