Reflections on the 2nd Catalan Congress of Mental Health
Josep Vilajoana. President of the FCCSM
The Boundaries of the Psyche
FRANCESC TOSQUELLES MEMORIAL
Barcelona, February 6, 7, and 8, 2003
With a suggestive title, The frontier of the psyche, the preparation for the second Congress began with eight working groups, with the objective of debating the complex construction of the subject and its interactions:
From the body/mind dichotomy to the ethical dimension, the work revolved around the boundaries between male/female, conscious/unconscious, individual/collective, health/illness, leisure/work, and age-related factors that facilitate or hinder a healthy life.
The unanimous conclusion of all participants in the congress was a cry of NO TO WAR, regarding the armed conflict in Iraq. The issue of wars and their effects on the population had been a major consideration from the outset of the desire to establish a foundation for the defense of mental health in Catalonia.
The dynamism and plasticity of the brain are highlighted, in contrast to any fatalistic determinism. The BIO-PSYCHO-SOCIAL model and the importance of the infant-environment interaction are defended in the set of tables and workshops. The infant as a paradigm of complexity. The discussion includes talking about emotions and also attachment. Currently, these are normalized aspects for addressing people's lives, although preventive and child protection aspects are still very lacking.
The congress reveals that women are still a minority in the business world, despite a consensus that women are an undeniable driving force for change. Currently, an improvement in this presence is not statistically significant, although it must be admitted that in certain sectors, especially those linked to basic services, women have achieved some visibility.
Assisted Reproductive Technologies, an area that has gained significant biological, social, and legal prominence over the past decade, are prominently featured in this blog. Psychological aspects are likely still undervalued.
Around the conscious-unconscious binomial, mental health is considered an INTERDISCIPLINARY challenge, which requires an ethical and political commitment.
Science, it is claimed, separates, simplifies, and expels “subjective uncertainty.” It was 2003, and there was already talk of the “dominion of the biological.” A movement was beginning, which continues to this day, advocating for a clinic based on the subject rather than on statistics.
To address the bidirectional flow from the individual to the collective, the difficulty of roles arises. The need for personal work, support, and supervision. Networks are a fiction, and roles are sometimes unconscious. Currently, the development of social networks in a digital society, immersed in invasive globalization, is an unquestionable reality.
The debate on health-illness highlights the concept of care and visualizes two forms: One, organicist, focused on illness and supported by pharmacology. The other, with values linked to the concept of health as an autonomous, supportive, and joyous way of life, which favors subjectivity and complexity.
The discussion is about zapping with the metaphor of our time: liquid, ephemeral, and superficial. And the media playing a “commercial” role. Year after year, we delve deeper and deeper into this scenario. The most recent example is the Covid-19 pandemic. The initial approach has been primarily hospital and biological, with little consideration for the psychological, social, and ethical effects, which have appeared progressively, and indeed, reactively.
Regarding unemployment/retirement and with special consideration for the phenomenon of early retirement, especially involuntary, it is clear that a lack of activity (work) very often leads to psychological disorders.
Work is considered to involve activity, structure time, stimulate creativity, foster social relationships, provide identity, and give a sense of usefulness. The labor and professional reality at the end of the first quarter of the century, with a very high level of precariousness, is far from the most dignified values attributed to work.
Precisely, the needs of professionals lead to the assertion that organizational support is required to aid in discernment. The FCCSM's Committee for Healthcare Ethics is being established to also clarify aspects of the laws.
The Healthcare Network is presented as characterized by disconnection, lack of coordination, and an overreliance on psychopharmacology.
On the other hand, the emergence of user associations is notable, as they currently have a considerable degree of solidity in the decisions made by politicians or governments. It is noteworthy that in 2000, a conference on mental health was held: politics, culture, and health services. Visions and responsibilities.
Immigration is addressed, conceptually and locally. It won't be until 2017 that the issue becomes a central focus of the Foundation's 6th Congress.
Although there are people who identify as 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th generation in our society, it is unequivocally concluded that the second generation is no longer a migrant.
In the chapter on drugs, a much-discussed diagnosis, between causality and contingency: DUAL PATHOLOGY.
The conclusions summarize, as a final point, the need for commitment from professionals.
New technologies are very lightly referenced, a concept that was already obsolete by 2020, and the internet is also mentioned with a still very distant attitude.
Regarding interdisciplinarity, it is concluded that “it is not about pooling various approaches, but rather about each one allowing itself to be influenced by the others.”.
We must say, at this moment, that we are not yet at that stage.
Finally, three years after that congress, in 2006, the 2nd Network Debate Conference was held on ideological, theoretical, and political aspects of the Mental Health model. This is also a topic that is constantly debated and never well-defined.