Psyche

de Pablo Cabado

The book-object Psyche is a documentary jewel that reflects a past and the enigma of a complex character, of methodical excess, who dedicated himself with voracity to try to discover the mystery of the human brain. For 4 years, Pablo Cabado photographed the huge pavilion, locked with keys. in the Neuropsychiatric Hospital Braulio A. Moyano, where doctor Christofried Jakob (1866-1956) worked. A German immigrant and a key figure in Argentine neurobiology, most of his research work is preserved intact, controversial to a large extent, at least seen from our present day. The images, dark and full of mystery, also speak of the ethical dilemmas of medicine, of how mental illness was perceived then and of what were considered "available" bodies back then. Includes period photographs of Clemente Onelli (Rome, Italy 1864 - Argentina 1924), a scientist, naturalist, conservationist, geographer, archaeologist, paleontologist, zoologist, botanist, explorer and writer who since 1899 and until his death in 1924 would develop a special friendship and scientific collaboration with Dr. Jakob. Both saw as natural that their scientific studies were obtained in the neurobiological tradition of the Borda Hospital with brains of the patients who died there or from the dead animals of the Zoo of Buenos Aires, where Onelli was director. Inserted is a facsimile map "Allemagne Australe" by German Otto Richard Tannenberg where Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile and parts of Bolivia and Brazil are part of the German Empire.