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[The influence of Spanish neuropsychiatry on the improbable medicine of Ramon Gomez de la Serna]
G Delgado-Garcia1, C Rodriguez-Navarez2, T Corona3
1Hospital Universitario de la Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon (UANL), Monterrey, Mexico.
Introduction:
El doctor inverosimil (The Improbable Doctor) is a novel by Ramon Gomez de la Serna (1888-1963) in which the reader follows, by means of a series of different clinical cases, the adventures of Doctor Vivar.
Aims:
To present and discuss, for the first time, the influence that Spanish neuropsychiatry had on this novel, taking the following short stories as study models: 'Casos cerebrales' ('Brain Cases') and 'La risita' ('The Giggles').
Development:
In these two tales, the improbable doctor embodies the three defining elements of Spanish neuropsychiatry. The repetitions of Alzheimer's disease (or in the way in which progressive general paralysis is referred to) hints at its Germanic orientation. The mixed neuropsychiatric component is exemplified in both his neurological ('La risita') and psychiatric skills ('Casos cerebrales'). Doctor Vivar's affinity to things histopathological is apparent in his wide and timely usage of neurohistological terminology, mainly from Cajal.
Conclusions:
It can be deduced that the Spanish neuropsychiatric school had a strong influence on Gomez de la Serna's El doctor inverosimil.
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