Los escotomas como metáfora en la obra de Oliver Sacks / The scotomas as a metaphor in the work of Oliver Sacks

Introducción. La utilización de metáforas médicas es frecuente en el discurso social y en los medios de comunicación. Sin embargo, su empleo por los propios médicos para definir conceptos distintos al significado original del término resulta poco habitual. Objetivo. Analizar el empleo del término "escotoma", en su sentido metafórico, en las obras del neurólogo y escritor Oliver Sacks. Desarrollo. Sacks usó escotoma metafóricamente en dos obras, en el libro autobiográfico A leg to stand on y en un ensayo, Scotoma: forgetting and neglect in science. En el primer caso, lo utilizó para describir la situación de pérdida sensorial de su extremidad inferior, que experimentó después de un accidente, lo que podría interpretarse como un «escotoma mental». En el segundo caso, Sacks analizó el proceso y las razones del olvido de las obras de algunos descubridores científicos precoces y comentó por qué había sucedido, una situación que denominó "escotoma histórico" o "social". Conclusiones. Sacks no utiliza el término «escotoma» de forma uniforme y, si bien en el caso de su accidente podría considerarse como una acepción menor, pero aceptada, es indudable su uso como metáfora médica para describir el olvido y la ignorancia de algunos descubrimientos científicos en determinadas situaciones históricas

Introduction. The use of medical metaphors is common in the social discourse and in the media. However, the use by physicians themselves to define different concepts to the original meaning of the medical word is rare. Aim. To analyze the term 'scotoma' in its metaphorical sense in the works of the neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks. Development. Sacks used scotoma metaphorically in two works, in the autobiographical book A leg to stand on and in an essay Scotoma: forgetting and neglect in science. In the first case, he used it to define the sensorial loss of his leg after an accident, which could be interpreted as a ‘mental scotoma'. In the second case, Sacks analyzed the process and the reasons of forgetting the works of some early scientific discoverers and discussed why this happened. In this case, Sacks made an analogy with the process suffered by scientific discoveries and the reasons why some of them are largely ignored, in a situation that he called 'historical' or 'social scotoma'. Conclusions. Sacks does not use the term 'scotoma' uniformly. When used to describe the sensorial loss of his leg, it might be considered that scotoma is there a second, although minor but accepted, meaning of the word. However, its use in the definition of historical neglect of early discoveries can be clearly defined as a medical metaphor in full sense

[A remembrance of Clarín's illnesses in his centenary]. / Las enfermedades de Clarín. Un recuerdo en su centenario.

The Spanish famous writer Leopoldo Alas, also known by the pseudonymous of "Clarín" suffered from two main kind of illnesses: nervous and digestives. Both began early, when he was only thirty two. At that moment, and during all his thirties, nervous ailments were conspicuous, but digestive problems were growing up slow but steadily and became the most serious and even menacing during his forties. Nervous pathology was double: on the one hand, some attacks of migraine with visual disturbances (scotoma), dysphasia and other "indescribable nervous oddities", which happened about 4-5 times per year; on the other, several emotional and vague symptoms, such as melancholia, dejected mood, anxiety, nervousness, etc. Digestive symptomatology, consisting of atonic constipation, intestinal dyspepsia, febricula, and a feeling of being "as a blocked drain", is due--no doubt--to tuberculous peritonitis diagnosed by his young nephew Dr. Martínez. This serious illness was the cause of his death on the 13th June 1901, when he was only 49.