" Death is an impertinence. Nobody wants to die. There are people in terrible living conditions he wants to live. Biological life we \u200b\u200bwant to extend to the fullest because there is life there biography " 1. So said Carlos Castilla del Pino (1922-2009) that defined his friends when his life ended, on May 15, 2009, as " a humanist, a rigorous scientist, a researcher, an insatiable reader, subtle writer deep, exquisite music fan, a curious traveler almost impertinent " 2.
Author of a large and complex scientific work: his best known titles " A study on depression " (1966), " Guilt" (1968), "The isolation " (1969), "Four trials Women" (1971), "Introduction to psychiatry " (two volumes, 1978, 1979), " Delirium. A necessary error" (1997), " feelings Theory "(2000), studies " pioneers and revolutionaries" in the field of modern psychiatry " many people have helped to know " 3 , Castilla del Pino unpayable we left two volumes of memoirs, one of most important personal documents of our historical memory "in the words of Emilio Lledó 4 :" Past Imperfect "(1997) and" Casa del Olivo "(2004), the last of the which I read with delight this summer.
This second volume (I have not read the first one, " where are the bases of my personality "), dated at Casa del Olivo, Castro del Rio in February 2004, begins in 1949 when the young psychiatrist arrives the Clinic of Neurology, Psychiatry and Mental Hygiene (name it, no one could stop him, previously attributed to pompously called Provincial Health Services Substance Abuse and Mental) of the city of Córdoba . Córdoba, on arrival. The memories of his arrival in Cordoba, typical provincial capital in Spain "leg" of the fifties, are high accuracy and interest many of Cordoba. The narrative account of the installation in detail the installation of a young doctor in a provincial capital and its struggle against misunderstanding and narrow-mindedness of the authorities and "right-thinking classes." For his prodigious memory, aided by timely record of his personal diary, are marching, known in his walks around town, neighborhoods, streets, buildings, interesting people seen with sincerity and an abundance of anecdotal features. Many of the stories he tells are truly terrible (these reports are of great harshness) and accurately reflect the material and moral misery of the time .
One of the things I was impressed how many account Castilla del Pino is the remembrance of many colleagues "in the medical profession, dedicated rural doctors, people who fulfilled their mission of helping others in silence, noble people, diluted in his own time, struggling against adversity, lack of incentives and precarious means.
Córdoba to be " in those years of miserable squalid Franco " Her work at the clinic, with its partners unforgettable memory, revives his furious "antifranquismo" due to contact with the social situation patients I always tried to " with due regard to their individuality, with respect to their identity, and with absolute control of all pity." himself defined his political activity during the Franco regime but as a moral response because of the political indignity of the dictatorship than a strictly political activity, "was the Franco by my outrage at the fact of the dictatorship and the subsequent moral corruption in the form of degradation of much of the citizenry and that pushed me adopt attitudes and behaviors that at times I appreciate my outside. "Perhaps this is why his resignation to participate as a candidate for Congress in the first democratic elections. travel by car through Spain (Salamanca, Extremadura Jaén, Mallorca, Segovia, Soria, Cuenca ...), accompanied by his inseparable travelogue, where all notes and documents, intensify their links with land landscapes, people, traditions and cuisine. His manners holds great reflection of social criticism: " many of the peoples of the road still had no electricity, and most people walked barefoot women in black with scarf, also black head." Irritation and embarrassment over the status of a heritage exceptional historical and artistic.
Another interesting chapter, as subjective as the whole book is his report on "important people" known throughout his life, Damaso Alonso, Ferrari Lafuente, Luis Martín Santos, a friend and colleague whom he portrays as a intelligent and bright but with difficulties in interpersonal relationships " for his compulsive need for affirmation " Juan Benet. Javier Pradera, Jesus Aguirre, Jorge Campos, Ricardo Gullón, Aranguren, Sampedro, Ridruejo, Lain (the "Release of Conscience" " books is one of the most mendacious, rhetorical and kitschy that have been written in our country ") and more .
The great frustration of Carlos Castilla del Pino was his academic failure in the post as a professor of psychiatry, caused by the machinations of the powerful features of the López Ibor, Vallejo, who prevented what was clearly just for the benefit of candidates more sympathetic to their political views. In fact would not be able to be Castilla Professor of Psychiatry and Social Dynamics in the School of Medicine, University of Cordoba, the extraordinary means of appointment "a finger" up to three years before retiring in 1983, during the first socialist government. Then come more honors. Favorite son of Andalusia (1985), doctor honoris causa of the University of Cádiz (2004) If the officer appointed professor veto was the great frustration of Castile, known for his great failure it was his relationship with her seven children, " I could not leave her enough air and tried to impose my goals and my methods, as if they were arguably the only and best" . The distance between father and children is enlarged. " The family group entered into a process of gradual decay ". The death of five of its seven children, was the great drama which goes over the last years of his life. After retirement in 1987, depression. His salvation was the work, write and read without stopping. Everything about the job and the books was part of himself .
Reading this memoir (the memory " the most necessary of life ) Castilla del Pino teacher has made me reflect on the necessary contribution of intellectuals to improve our society. Today, when the quality of our democracy leaves much to be desired and politicians have lost trust and confidence of citizens 5 are becoming more necessary for teachers. In a world " rich in science, technology and technical advances, but very poor in wisdom", as pointed out clearly, another teacher of the few that we are staying, Jose Luis Sampedro ("a person full and an honesty that was obvious "he defined Castilla), intellectuals not to be complicit or silent witnesses to the atrocities committed, but" indignant about what's wrong and say " 6 . In this line, unfortunately so rare in this day and age, Carlos Castilla del Pino was an intellectual committed, " of the always appealed to me, writes Caballero Bonald, their ideological fervor, his sense of dialectic, his critique of culture and society " 7, a man without blemish, "a reference intellectual, political, human " in his public for many failures and frustrations they have in his "secret life."
" Olive House is a gritty book, written with sincerity difficult and bitter, occasionally, evidence of a singular life, mirror of an epoch, which writes Bernabe Sarabia, " can read in many ways but all helpful" 8.
© Manuel Martínez Bargueño
August 2010
August 2010
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NOTES
1 Something like I've read has said Woody Allen in Oviedo presentation of his latest film, "Learn about the man of your dreams " Although I would probably not be able to give a good reason for that life is worthwhile, but if someone entered this room right now with a shotgun, my natural reaction, like any of us , would cling to life and take cover " (El País, August 28, 2010).
2 Juan Angel Vela del Campo. " of bulls and cars" . " The farewell to the great intellectual of the left" . El País, May 16, 2009.
3 Anna Caballé. " Certain Regard." "The farewell to the great intellectual of the left ." El País, May 16, 2009.
4 Emilio Lledó. " The most necessary of life.'s Farewell to the great intellectual left." El País, May 16, 2009.
5 See Enrique Gil Calvo. " The quality of democratic life " The Country Babelia 08/07/1910.
6 El Mundo, July 23, 2010.
7 JM Caballero Bonald. "From all this a century ago. The farewell to the great intellectual left." El País, May 16, 2009.
8 Barnabas Sarabia. Casa del Olivo. The Cultural World 18.11.2004.
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