Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to C A Cabral.
Alejandro Korn is a clear example of a man whose life evidences to be firmly coherent between thinking and action. He was a physician, a psychiatrist, and a philosopher, a first-line actor in various decisive events affecting his country, Argentina.
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Work psychopathology concept is outlined, restricted, however, to different disorders and conflicts whose actual cause is to be found in the intrinsic mechanism of work-related activity. Environment- and life condition-related causes are disregarded. Nervous fatigue neurasthenoid syndrome is understood as a result of a dephasing between CNS neurophysiological timing and work rhythms. The author stresses that taking productivity as a parameter for nervous fatigue measurement--which substituted for the former muscular fatigue criterion in industry--is quite erroneous an opinion. Ergonomy is to be developed: Ergonomy is an interdisciplinary science which studies concordance between Man's physical and psychophysiological possibilities and properties, and possibilities and properties of contemporary work technical systems and their functioning conditions as well.
This paper describes an experience carried out at Braulio Moyano Psychiatric Hospital between 1972 and 1976. Two psychodramatic groups were formed. One, according with Moreno's theories; the other, following the doctrines of the "Grupo Experimental Psicodramático Latino-americano". The experience proved to be fruitful. Psychodrama allows, by means of the use of "intermediate objects" the patient to discriminate several entities: reality from dramatization, dramatic spaces from real spaces, inner world from outer world. As soon as the patient is in position to discriminate the images and fantasies that pervade his inner world leading it to chaos, he becomes able to interrelate with other people and to include himself into the real world. Several examples are given of particular cases and the effects of psychodramatic techniques on them, within the limitations of a psychiatric institution. The results show the possibility to lessen psychotic segregation and to improve the possibilities to establish relationships with the outer world.
This study at one Pavilion of Braulio Moyano Hospital allowed an evaluation of the therapeutic community method, applied in a very elastic way due to circumstances like: precarious physical commodities of the pavilion; a typical shortage of everything which became a characteristic of our hospital system; the kind of patients with long evolution psychosis; all this added to the compulsory seclusion of most of them with no friends or relatives relationship established. The pavilion's number of patients is around 110. Statistically, our patients are 67,8% older than 50, with an average age of 56,1 years. Only 19% go out of the hospital with relatives, and 34,8% of them have contact with their families once a week or every 15 days. The most common pathologies are: schizophrenia 54 patients; paraphrenia 20; feeble minded 13; and 9 with reiterative acute polymorphic delusions. Under treatment with neuroleptic drugs we have 94 patients, that is 86%. In occupational rehabilitation they are concerned with monthly luncheon, play entertainment games, go to movies, beauty parlors, ceramics, sewing activities, learning to read and write, and some parties in relevant national dates, all this at the hospital premises. In spite of all these negative facts, we can state that during the period the present study took place, 66% of all the patients released from hospital had been interned less than a year. Besides, between July 1973 and July 1974, 53 patients were released, a figure that shows relevant results for the kind of hospital we are dealing with.