The rector of the National University of Rosario, Franco Bartolacci, asked the authorities of the Faculty of Medicine to reverse the dictation of contents of the postgraduate course on bioemotion “that are inappropriate for an academic and scientific institution like ours.” The training sparked controversy in recent days due to the incorporation of topics that some professionals and researchers claim are not scientifically validated (it develops axes such as family constellations, Ericksonian and epigenetic hypnosis). Also yesterday, the College of Psychologists issued a statement: through a statement, it expressed concern about the implications of this training in the field of mental health.
In this sense, the rector of the UNR was exhaustive. “Although it is the competence and power of the faculty to approve the contents of the courses that are proposed, and in this case it is an optional postgraduate proposal of the Faculty of Medicine that does not affect the degree training or the curricular structure of the medicine career, from my perspective there are contents that are inappropriate for an academic and scientific institution like ours”, he remarked.
Immediately afterwards, he raised the following on some topics of the training called Bioemotion: New Medicine and the five biological laws. “I understand that his ruling must be reversed and I have told the authorities of the faculty that way,” he said.
On Tuesday, the vice dean of that academic unit, Damián Lerman, had said that it would be enriching to open an interdisciplinary study space on alternative forms to the hegemonic allopathic medicine within the university, “that the university can host this debate.” A debate that occurs and grows in a context of boom in holistic therapies and alternative disciplines to traditional medicine.
Psychologists’ concern
The College of Psychologists of the second constituency, meanwhile, was concerned about the existence of this higher course approved by the Board of Directors of Medical Sciences, although not only aimed at doctors but also at other professionals with a degree, upon payment of a tariff.
In the first place, in relation to the legitimacy of practices in a field that concerns them, that of psychotherapies, they stated through a statement that “any intervention or practice that operates in the field of health is an area of practice for psychology. mind of a subject. Professionals who practice in this field must have completed higher studies at recognized universities that qualify them, in turn, to perform such functions”, they underlined and cited as a framework the provincial law No. 9,538 on the professional practice of psychologists, the Code of Ethics of the Federation of Psychologists of the Argentine Republic and the national law on mental health and addictions.
“In 2014, the National Interministerial Commission on Mental Health and Addiction Policies issued recommendations to public and private universities in which the importance of training and updating professionals in the field of mental health is highlighted, as well as the articulation of different actors, knowledge and disciplines, in order to carry out the transformation process that is intended”, they added.
The psychologists asked to take care of the quality of health and mental health benefits provided to the population. “We consider it relevant to review the knowledge and practices that are disseminated, as well as the position on concepts, practices and theories that in themselves, some of them, or in their possible assemblies (quantum physics and family constellations?) may result of dubious scientificity ”, they maintained and remarked: “A renewal of scientific knowledge has to think about ways of constructing instruments, delineating hypotheses and confronting them, determining validation systems. The academy is not the only participating institution, to be sure. But it cannot be left out.”
In this sense, they pointed out that although “there are practices with a certain degree of diffusion and social acceptance, this does not imply their immediate passage to validation by an institution such as a public university. The university validation of such dissimilar practices and knowledge, as well as their possible assemblies, would deserve, due to the possible impact on the target populations, a more extensive consideration and the inclusion of other institutions such as academic commissions of the Faculty of Psychology of the UNR, the College of Psychologists, scientific organizations in the field of psychiatry and the Research Ethics Committee of the UNR”.