Manuel Isaías López
Mexican psychiatrist (1941–2017)
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Through Bioethics, Liberalism and Intellectual
In the last quarter of the twentieth century, Manuel Isaías López was considered the most influential psychiatrist in Mexico. In the early 1980s, he was simultaneously president of the Mexican Psychoanalytic Association; secretary general of the Mexican Board of Psychiatry; director of child and adolescent psychiatry at UNAM; and main consultant to the System for the Integral Development of the Family (DIF), a nationwide government funded system of child and family guidance centers. His later contributions were in Bioethics, and he evolved into a researcher within this field and an International Psychoanalytic Association officer.
Early life
Manuel Isaías López was born into a middle-class family on 20 May 1941. Raised as an only child in downtown Mexico City, López's father, Isaías López Suárez, was a Spanish prestigious downtown "abarrotero" (grocer) who owned his own food store. López's mother, Carmen Gómez Alatriste (de López), came from a Mexican family with historical lineage in Puebla. Her family had been much involved in the Mexican Liberal Movement of the 19th Century. Carmen's cousin, Aquiles Serdán Alatriste, was a notable figure of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Carmen was also great-granddaughter of Miguel Cástulo Alatriste, a Governor of Puebla who fought as a liberal and was slayed during the "Guerra de Reforma" (Reform War).
Manuel Isaías López was exposed to eminent Mexican intellectuals since he was a child. The influence of his academician uncle, Sealtiel L. Alatriste, and the writer and painter Dr. Atl (Gerardo Murillo) early on promoted his interest of the in-depth study of ideas and emotions. López's mother and grandmother often invited famous members of the Mexican cultural circles to their apartment in San Juan de Letrán Avenue, in downtown Mexico City. The building where López grew up housed the "Café Súper Leche", which later gained national prominence when the building collapsed in the 1985 Mexico City earthquake. Many of López's friends from childhood and their families died in the event.
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Education
López attended the Medical School at UNAM, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, with the idea of later training in Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis. As a medical student he developed strong relationships with the psychoanalytic group at UNAM, the psychiatrists at General Hospital of Mexico, and - through his father's Spanish connections - to the Hospital Español de México. These relationships would later support his efforts of integrating differing groups into the training program he developed at UNAM.
López then graduated as a psychiatrist from the Medical College of Pennsylvania, and as a child and adolescent psychiatrist from the Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute (EPPI). He studied psychoanalysis and child psychoanalysis at the Institute of the Mexican Psychoanalytic Association.
Psychiatric practice
López lived and practiced from 1972 to 2009 in a suburb of Mexico City. From 2009 to 2013 he practiced in Barcelona, Spain, and in New York from 2013 to 2017. During his last years, López helped organize the first program in child psychoanalytic training at IPTAR (The Institute For Psychoanalytic Training and Research), in New York City.
Academic life
López published more than 150 original articles and two books: "La Encrucijada de la Adolescencia ("The Crossroads of Adolescence") and "Ética en Psiquiatría, Psicoanálisis y Psicoterapia" ("Ethics in Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychotherapy"). In 2018, the Manuel Isaías López Foundation published posthumously his book "Desarrollo de la Identidad y Nacionalismo Mexicanos: A Quinientos Años" ("The Development of Mexican Identity: A Psychological Perspective").
Mann de Dayán describes the "Sensory Oversaturation Syndrome" as López's main contribution to the psychodynamics of adolescence. According to this phenomenon, the adolescent manages to move away from his own narcissistic needs by overstimulating himself, as a first step before he projects his needs to outside sources.
Death
Manuel Isaías López died in New York City on November 29, 2017.