Sad and degenerate indigenous: the psychiatric view of Hermilio Valdizán on racial difference in Peru, 1910-1925. / Indígenas tristes y degenerados: la mirada psiquiátrica de Hermilio Valdizán sobre la diferencia racial en Perú, 1910-1925.

Hermilio Valdizán published several papers on what was called psychiatric folklore, understood as the ways of understanding and treating mental illnesses by indigenous people, both from the colonial and pre-Hispanic past and from the author's present. In this article, we analyze Valdizán's texts on the psychiatric and psychological characteristics of indigenous Peruvians. From the perspective of this psychiatrist, contemporary indigenous people were archaeological remains of the ancient Inca empire, ruins in the process of degeneration. In a context marked by indigenism, in which it was sought to integrate the Indians, psychiatry played a conservative and racist role that reproduced evolutionary models of the nineteenth century.

Hermilio Valdizán publicó numerosos trabajos sobre lo que se denominó folklor psiquiátrico, entendido como las formas de comprender y tratar las enfermedades mentales por parte de los indígenas, tanto del pasado colonial y prehispánico como del presente del autor. En este artículo analizamos los textos de Valdizán sobre las características psiquiátricas y psicológicas de los indígenas peruanos. Desde la perspectiva de este psiquiatra, los indígenas contemporáneos eran restos arqueológicos del antiguo imperio inca, ruinas en proceso de degeneración. En un contexto marcado por el indigenismo donde se buscaba integrar al indio, la psiquiatría desempeñó un papel conservador y racista que reprodujo modelos evolucionistas del siglo XIX.

Indígenas tristes y degenerados: la mirada psiquiátrica de Hermilio Valdizán sobre la diferencia racial en Perú, 1910-1925 / Sad and degenerate indigenous: the psychiatric view of Hermilio Valdizán on racial difference in Peru, 1910-1925

Resumen Hermilio Valdizán publicó numerosos trabajos sobre lo que se denominó folklor psiquiátrico, entendido como las formas de comprender y tratar las enfermedades mentales por parte de los indígenas, tanto del pasado colonial y prehispánico como del presente del autor. En este artículo analizamos los textos de Valdizán sobre las características psiquiátricas y psicológicas de los indígenas peruanos. Desde la perspectiva de este psiquiatra, los indígenas contemporáneos eran restos arqueológicos del antiguo imperio inca, ruinas en proceso de degeneración. En un contexto marcado por el indigenismo donde se buscaba integrar al indio, la psiquiatría desempeñó un papel conservador y racista que reprodujo modelos evolucionistas del siglo XIX.

Abstract Hermilio Valdizán published several papers on what was called psychiatric folklore, understood as the ways of understanding and treating mental illnesses by indigenous people, both from the colonial and pre-Hispanic past and from the author's present. In this article, we analyze Valdizán's texts on the psychiatric and psychological characteristics of indigenous Peruvians. From the perspective of this psychiatrist, contemporary indigenous people were archaeological remains of the ancient Inca empire, ruins in the process of degeneration. In a context marked by indigenism, in which it was sought to integrate the Indians, psychiatry played a conservative and racist role that reproduced evolutionary models of the nineteenth century.

Racial degeneration, mental hygiene, and the beginning of Peruvian psychiatry, 1922-1934.

Between 1922 and 1934, three pamphlets and a series of articles on mental hygiene were published in important newspapers in Lima, Peru. Their authors were Hermilio Valdizán and Honorio Delgado, two members of the first generation of psychiatrists in the country. These mass publications aimed to educate the population on what mental illness was, as well as its causes and symptoms. In addition, they sought to promote the figure of the psychiatrist as a specialist in "madness" whose recommendations should be heeded in family life. To that end, these publications contained true cases, related in melodramatic language, in order to reach a broader audience. Beyond their educative intention, these publications used ideas that Peruvian elites held about racial differentiation, because they were aimed at White and mestizo readers and had the express intention of preventing racial "degeneration." The analysis of this primary source material is complemented with other texts by Valdizán that sought to comprehend the manifestations of insanity among Native Peruvians, for which he used degeneration theory to explain the degree of "backwardness" observed among the races that were considered inferior. This article seeks to analyze the viewpoints held on racial differences by the most significant members of Peru's first generation of psychiatrists, in which degeneration theory was key in explaining the differences between human groups and in justifying the superiority of Whites and Western culture in the Peruvian state's mestizo identity initiative. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).