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Madness, Neurasthenia, and “Modernity”: Medico-legal and Popular Interpretations of Suicide in Early Twentieth-Century Lima

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2022

Paulo Drinot
Paulo Drinot*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Abstract

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This article examines medico-legal and popular interpretations of suicide in early twentieth-century Lima. In this period, often referred to as the Aristocratic Republic, physicians and lawyers interpreted suicide through the lens of modern scientific and legal thought and came to challenge the traditional interpretations of the Church, which insisted that suicide was a voluntary act. For these groups, suicide, almost invariably an act of madness, was essentially a modern phenomenon, both product and evidence of Lima's growing “modernity,” as well as a social disease that could be combated by adopting adequate policies. However, though they opposed the Church's insistence on the responsibility of the suicide, physicians and lawyers viewed the propensity to suicide as evidence of the moral and racial degeneration of Lima's population and shared the Church's condemnation of suicide as a shameful and immoral act. For ordinary people, medico-legal discourse on suicide provided an additional explanation for self-death. In particular, the idea that suicide was caused by forces over which no one had any real control, especially forces that were a product of the perceived “modernization” of Lima, such as neurasthenia (a nervous condition that became a widespread explanation for suicide at the time) helped in the need to dilute blame and guilt. But, although medico-legal and popular understandings of suicide cross-fertilized, attempts by ordinary people to apportion certain meanings to suicide, particularly those that constructed suicide as a voluntary act, were perceived by the medico-legal community, and, indeed, more broadly, as threats to society.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , June 2004 , pp. 89 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 by the University of Texas Press

References

1. Two main approaches to the historical study of suicide are identifiable in this recent literature, the statistical and the ethnomethodological. These are linked to the two dominant sociological approaches to suicide, Emile Durkheim's and Jack Douglas's. See Olive Anderson, Suicide in Victorian and Edwardian England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987); Michael MacDonald and Terence R. Murphy, Sleepless Souls: Suicide in Early Modern England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990); Victor Bailey, This Rash Act: Suicide across the Life Cycle in the Victorian City (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998); Georges Minois, History of Suicide: Voluntary Death in Western Culture (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999); Alexander Murray, Suicide in the Middle Ages (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). Recent medical approaches to suicide have placed increasing emphasis on the role played by a specific neurotransmitter, serotonin. For a proposal of how to incorporate biochemical perspectives in the historical analysis of suicide, see Howard I. Kushner, “Biochemistry, Suicide, and History: Possibilities and Problems,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 16, no. 1 (1985): 69-85.

2. Fernando de Trazegnies, La idea de derecho en el Perú republicano del siglo XIX (Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 1992).

3. “Haussmannization refers to the urban reforms introduced in many cities in this period that echoed the reforms implemented by Baron Haussmann in Paris in the 1850s and 1860s.” See David Harvey, Consciousness and the Urban Experience (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1995).

4. Gabriel Ramon Joffré, La muralla y los callejones: Intervención urbana y proyecto político en Lima durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX (Lima: SIDEA, 1999). Although Lima was not a major recipient of immigrants like Buenos Aires or São Paulo, according to the 1908 census, about 10 percent of the city's population was foreign-born. The majority were Europeans (6,113), followed by Asians, mainly Chinese and Japanese (5,494), and from other countries in the American continent (1,694). Among the Europeans, Italians (3,094) represented by far the biggest group, but almost all other European countries were represented. In addition to various nationalities, Lima was also home to great ethnic diversity. According to the same census, the population was 66,750 whites (38.6 percent), 55,831 mestizos (32.3), 32,842 Indians (19.0), 9,400 blacks (5.4), and 7,694 ‘yellows’ (4.4).

5. See Alicia del Aguila, Callejones y mansiones: Espacios de opinión pública y redes sociales y políticas en la Lima del 1900 (Lima: Fondo Editorial Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú [PUCP], 1997); Carmen McEvoy, “Entre la nostalgia y el escándalo: Abraham Valdelomar y la construcción de una sensibilidad moderna en las postrimerías de la ‘República Aristocrática’,” in Carmen McEvoy, Forjando la Nación: Ensayos de historia republicana (Lima: Instituto Riva-Agüero, 1999), 247-313; Fanni Muñoz Cabrejo, Diversiones públicas en Lima, 1890-1920: La experiencia de la modernidad (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos [IEP], 2001).

6. Peter Blanchard, The Origins of the Peruvian Labor Movement, 1883-1919 (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1982), 153-78; Augusto Ruiz Zevallos, La multitud, las subsistencia y el trabajo: Lima, 1890-1920 (Lima: Fondo Editorial PUCP, 2001); David S. Parker, The Idea of the Middle Class: White-Collar Workers and Peruvian Society, 1900-1950 (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998).

7. David S. Parker, “Civilizing the City of Kings: Hygiene and Housing in Lima, Peru,” in Ronn F. Pineo and James A. Baer, Cities of Hope: People, Protests, and Progress in Urbanizing Latin America, 1870-1930 (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998), 153-78;Marcos Cueto, El regreso de las epidemias: Salud y sociedad en el Perú del siglo XX (Lima: IEP, 1997).

8. Manuel Burga and Alberto Flores Galindo, Apogeo y crisis de la República Aristocrática (Lima: Rikchay Perú, 1984); Gonzalo Portocarrero, “El fundamento invisible: Función y lugar de las ideas racistas en la República Aristocrática,” in Aldo Panfichi and Felipe Portocarrero, eds., Mundos interiores: Lima 1850-1950 (Lima: Universidad del Pacífico, 1995), 219-59.

9. See Mario Marcone, “Indígenas e inmigrantes durante la República Aristocrática: Población e ideología civilista,” in Histórica 19, no. 1 (1995): 73-93.

10. On positivism in Peru, see Marcos Cueto, Excelencia científica en la periferia: Actividades científicas e investigación biomédica en el Perú, 1890-1950 (Lima: Grupo de Análisis para el Desarrollo [GRADE], 1989).

11. See Parker, “Civilising”; María Emma Mannarelli, Limpias y modernas: Género, higiene y cultura en la Lima del novecientos (Lima: Ediciones Flora Tristán, 1999); Juan Fonseca Ariza, “Antialcoholismo y modernización en el Perú (1900-1930),” Histórica 24, no. 2 (2000): 327-64.

12. Augusto Ruiz Zevallos, Psiquiatras y locos: Entre la modernización contra los Andes y el nuevo proyecto de modernidad: Perú, 1850-1930 (Lima: Instituto Pasado y Presente, 1994).

13. Significantly, these two approaches can already be gleaned in a couple of articles published as early as 1861 in La Gaceta Médica de Lima by José Casimiro Ulloa and Domingo Vera. See La Gaceta Médica de Lima, año VI, 123, October 1861, 345-53.

14. Pilar García Jordan, Iglesia y poder en el Perú contemporáneo (Cuzco: Bartolomé de las Casas, n.d.); Fernando Armas, Liberales, protestantes y masones. Modernidad y tolerancia religiosa. Perú, siglo XIX (Lima: Fondo Editorial PUCP, 1993).

15. Neptalí Pérez Velasquez, “El suicidio como entidad neuropatológica” (thesis, Medicine Faculty, Lima, 1899), n.p.

16. Modesto Silva Santisteban, “Homicidio y suicidio—sus caracteres médico-legales” (thesis, Medicine Faculty, Lima). In La Gaceta Médica, año V, no. 10, 31 October 1878, 305-7.

17. Pérez Velásquez, “El suicidio.”

18. Sabino Ríos, “El suicidio en Lima” (thesis, Medicine Faculty, Lima, 1920).

19. La Revista Católica, año XV, no. 661, 29 September 1894.

20. Archivo Arzobispal de Lima [hereafter AAL], Comunicaciones 35:39, case of Liborio Paz Burbano, 3 March 1891.

21. AAL, Notas de Supremo Gobierno XA:220, Fernando Cavero to Director de la Beneficencia Pública, 3 August 1867; XIIIA:254A, Fernando Cavero to Obispo de Lima, 5 August 1888; Comunicaciones, XXXIX:121, Parish priest of San Mateo to Archbishop, 1 June 1903.

22. L. A. Barandarián, “El suicidio,” in El Buen Consejo, año II, no. 2, 1923, 61.

23. Ibid., 63.

24. José Viterbo Arias, Exposición comentada y comparada del Código Penal del Perú de 1863, vol. 3 (Lima, 1902), 36.

25. Bailey, This Rash Act, 130.

26. República del Perú, Código Penal (Ley No. 4868) (Lima, 1924), 48.

27. On neurasthenia, see Marijke Giswijt-Hofstra and Roy Porter, eds., Cultures of Neurasthenia: From Beard to the First World War (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2001).

28. M. O. Tamayo, “Un caso grave de psicastenia,” in Gaceta de los Hospitales, año III, no. 65, 1 August 1906, 141-50.

29. See La Crónica Médica, año 42, no. 748, October 1925.

30. P. Gorena, “Causas de la neurastenia,” in El Buen Consejo, año V, no. 2, 1926.

31. Barandarián, “El suicidio.”

32. I am grateful to one of the anonymous reviewers for pointing this out.

33. Hermilio Valdizán, Elementos de jurisprudencia médica (Lima: Empresa Editora “Excelsior,” 1929), 43-44.

34. Ríos, “El suicidio.”

35. Juan Croniqueur was, of course, José Carlos Mariátegui's pen name. See “El mal del siglo,” in La Prensa, 29 April 1915; cited in José Carlos Mariátegui, Escritos Juveniles (La edad de piedra) (Lima: Empresa Editora Amauta, 1991), 235.

36. Carlos Enrique Paz Soldán, “El inquietante problema del suicidio,” in La Crónica, 25 June 1916.

37. La Prensa, 31 March 1918.

38. La Prensa, 7 August 1912. Cited in Mariátegui, Escritos juveniles II, 20.

39. Croniqueur, “El mal del siglo,” 236.

40. In this sense, I disagree with Ruiz Zevallos' analysis; see Psiquiatras y locos, 97-98.

41. Silva Santisteban, “Homicidio y suicidio,” 306.

42. Viterbo Arias, Exposición comentada, 36.

43. Andrés S. Muñoz, “Estado mental del suicida,” in La Crónica Médica, año III, no. 32, 31 August 1886, 297-301.

44. Ríos, “El suicidio,” 45.

45. La Crónica Médica, año XV, no. 226, 31 May 1898, 178-81.

46. Muñoz, “Estado mental,” 301.

47. Ríos, “El suicidio,” 8.

48. On neo-Lamarckism and, more generally, eugenics in Latin America, see Nancy Leys Stepan, The Hour of Eugenics: Race, Gender, and Nation in Latin America (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1991).

49. Muñoz, “Estado mental,” 301.

50. Pérez Velásquez, “El suicidio,” n.p.

51. Although we know that Ríos constructed his suicide statistics from morgue records, and for that reason can assume that they reflect the total number of suicides registered by the morgue during the 1904-19 period, these figures are clearly far from accurate and do not reflect all suicides in this period. Indeed, suicide statistics included in yearly municipal reports would suggest that Ríos's data underestimate the real rate of suicide.

52. See Eugenia Scarzanella, Ni gringos ni indios: Inmigración, criminalidad y racismo en Argentina, 1890-1940 (Buenos Aires: Universidad Nacional de Quilmes Ediciones, 1999), 50.

53. See http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suiciderates/en/.

54. El Comercio, 6 July 1901, evening edition.

55. Christine Hunefeldt, Liberalism in the Bedroom: Quarreling Spouses in Nineteenth-Century Lima (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000).

56. Scarzanella, Ni gringos ni indios, 50.

57. According to the data, the sample included: 39 whites, 1 black, 36 Indians, 29 mestizos and 16 “yellows.”

58. El Comercio, 30 January 1905, evening edition.

59. Humberto Rodríguez Pastor, Hijos del Celeste Imperio en el Perú (1850-1900): Migración, agricultura, mentalidad y explotación (Lima: Instituto de Apoyo Agrario, 1989), 85.

60. Janet E. Worrall, La inmigración italiana en el Perú 1860-1914 (Lima: Instituto Italiano de Cultura, 1990); Giovanni Bonfiglio, Los italianos en la sociedad peruana (Lima: SAYWA Ediciones, 1994); Jorge Bracamonte, “La modernidad de los subalternos: los inmigrantes chinos en la ciudad de Lima, 1895-1930,” in Santiago López Maguiña et al., Estudios culturales: Discursos, poderes, pulsiones (Lima: Red para el Desarollo de las Ciencias Sociales, 2001), 167-88.

61. On elite attitudes to death, see Felipe Portocarrero, “Religión, familia, riqueza y muerte en la élite económica: Perú, 1900-1950,” in Panfichi and Portocarrero, Mundos interiores, 131-38.

62. See Pérez Velasquez, “El suicidio.”

63. See Bailey, This Rash Act, especially part 5.

64. Only one person under 15 years of age committed suicide (in the case of three people, it proved impossible to determine their age). I take these categories, with small modifications for the age groups, from Bailey, This Rash Act. It is worth bearing in mind that in 1940, average life expectancy was estimated at just below aged 40.

65. Less common forms included hanging (15 percent), the use of knifes or razors (13 percent); poison (11 percent); jumping from heights (3 percent), and lying under trams or trains (1 percent).

66. Richard Cobb, Death in Paris (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), 32.

67. For example, in 1907 Maria Ignacia Torres was sent to the Santo Tomás women's jail following her attempted suicide. Unfortunately, we do not know how long she had to stay there. See Archivo General de la Nación [hereafter AGN]/3.9.5.1.15.1.16.19, Intendente to Prefecto, 4 April 1907.

68. AGN/3.9.5.1.15.16.15, Intendente to Prefecto, 25 May 1904.

69. See AGN/RPJ (República Poder Judicial), Causas criminales, legajo 83, “De oficio contra Tomás Fuentes por intento de suicidio.”

70. MacDonald and Murphy, Sleepless Souls, 298.

71. AGN/3.9.5.1.15.116.12, Intendente to Prefecto, 11 October 1899.

72. Bailey, This Rash Act, 56.

73. AGN/RPJ, Causas Criminales, legajo 680, 1899, “Oficio para descubrir las causas de la muerte de Juan de la Cruz.”

74. AGN/RPJ, Causas Criminales, legajo 75, 1915, “seguidos con motivo del suicidio de Don Luis Salinas y Rávago.”

75. La Crónica, 11 July 1916.

76. Luis Alberto Sánchez, Testimonio personal, vol 1 (Lima, Ediciones Villasan, 1969), 66.

77. AGN/3.9.5.1.15.1.16.15, Intendente to Prefecto, 9 May 1904.

78. AGN/3.9.5.1.15.1.16.35, Intendente to Prefecto, 7 June 1918.

79. See Alberto García, “Alcohol y Alcoholismo,” in La Crónica Médica, año XVIII, no. 295, 15 April 1901, 103-6.

80. AGN/3.9.5.1.15.1.16.15, Intendente to Prefecto, 7 June 1904.

81. AGN/3.9.5.1.15.1.16.25, Intendente to Prefecto, 10 July 1911.

82. AGN/3.9.5.1.15.1.16.19, Intendente to Prefecto, 6 August 1907.

83. AGN/3.9.5.1.15.1.16.12, Intendente to Prefecto, 6 December 1898.

84. AGN/3.9.5.1.15.1.16.13, Intendente to Prefecto, 17 September 1902.

85. La Crónica, 30 March 1916.

86. AGN/3.9.5.1.15.1.16.29, Intendente to Prefecto, 1 June 1915.

87. La Prensa (evening edition), 19 March 1918.

88. La Prensa (evening edition), 27 March 1918.

89. AGN/3.9.5.1.15.1.16.12, Intendente to Prefecto, 13 July 1900.

90. AGN/3.9.5.1.15.1.16.13, Intendente to Prefecto, 26 December 1901.

91. AGN/3.9.5.1.15.1.16.12, Intendente to Prefecto, 10 March 1910.

92. AGN/3.9.5.1.15.1.16.33, Intendente to Prefecto, 8 March 1917.

93. AGN/3.9.5.1.15.1.16.34, Intendente to Prefecto, 27 November 1918.

94. AGN/RPJ, Causas Criminales, legajo 75, “seguidos con motivo del suicidio de Don Luis Salinas y Rávago.”

95. AGN/3.9.5.1.15.1.16.32, Comisario to Subprefecto, 11 April 1917.

96. El Comercio (evening edition), 10 April 1905.

97. See the essays in Diego Armus, ed., Disease in the History of Modern Latin America: From Malaria to Aids (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003).

98. RPJ, Causas Criminales, legajo 11, 1900, “sumario sobre el suicidio de don Fabio Melgar.”

99. AGN/3.9.5.1.15.1.16.28, Intendente to Prefecto, 28 October 1913.

100. La Crónica, 22 June 1916.

101. Paz Soldán, “El inquietante problema del suicidio.”

102. See Lulú, año I, no. 14, 21 October 1915.

103. Minois, History of Suicide, 325-26.