Columns with a Purpose: Informing, Challenging, and Appreciating
Some columns aim to inform, others to provoke thought, and some, like this one, serve to express gratitude, remember, and close chapters. This column exists for and because of its readers who dedicate time to contemplate mental health not as a fleeting trend or diagnostic label, but as a human, historical, and collective responsibility.
The History of Neglect: Mental Health Through the Ages
Since antiquity, mental health has occupied an uncomfortable space. Hippocrates proposed something revolutionary for his time: that mental suffering was not a divine punishment but a natural phenomenon related to the brain and body. He was an early figure who anticipated what we now understand as an integrative approach in psychiatry.
However, this perspective did not flourish. For centuries, what couldn’t be measured, weighed, or seen was relegated. During the Middle Ages and the Inquisition, the psyche became suspect; mental pain was interpreted as possession, sin, or heresy. What wasn’t understood was punished or excluded.
It wasn’t until the early 20th century that Sigmund Freud broke this silence by proposing that symptoms have a purpose, being linked to personal history, trauma, and desire. Then, the mind regained narrative depth and symbolism.
But the pendulum swung to the other extreme: too much inner world, little body. Another harmful fragmentation.
The Era of Chemistry: Illumination and Shadows
Midway through the 20th century, the discovery of psychopharmacological drugs completely transformed psychiatry. The theory of neurotransmitters provided relief to millions, but it also reduced human suffering to mere chemical imbalances. Life history, social context, trauma, and the body were pushed to the side.
This solidified one of the major obstacles to an integrative view: believing that understanding a molecule was sufficient to understand a person.
Later, in the 21st century, during Barack Obama’s presidency, large neuroscience projects advanced brain knowledge like never before. Maps, images, circuits, and connectivity were explored.
We learned a great deal, but we still confuse seeing with understanding.
The Return of the Body, the Power of Experience
In recent years, some discoveries have shaken the reductionism once more. One of the most significant has been the role of intestinal microbiota in mental health. Today, we know that the gut communicates with the brain and produces neurotransmitters. We’ve also learned that chronic inflammation, diet, early stress, and lifestyle directly influence anxiety, depression, and cognitive decline. This finding compelled science to admit that mental health cannot be treated without considering the body.
The resurgence of psychedelic research and therapy-assisted treatments has brought another powerful reminder: subjective experience matters. Not just what substance acts, but the context, accompanying care, and personal history. Neuroplasticity stops being an abstract concept and becomes experiential, embodied.
The Purpose of This Column
This column aims to remind us that we are not floating brains; mental health is not reduced to chemistry; psychological pain isn’t cured by silence or quick fixes; holistic—so misnamed—is actually an ancient truth that science is only rediscovering.
We’ve discussed psychedelics, ibogaine, gender and science, ethics in research, grief, mortality, childhood, trauma, false promises, and uncomfortable questions. These topics sparked debate, controversy, and reflection because they compel us to think differently.
This column stems from my firm belief that psychoeducation is not a luxury—it’s necessary prevention. Understanding the mind, body, and spirit as an integrated system doesn’t romanticize pain; it makes us responsible for it. It invites us to listen, contextualize, and accompany with scientific knowledge and humanity.
Closing the Year, Opening Consciousness
Closing the year means closing a way of looking at ourselves. May 2026 find us more attentive to our internal signals, less demanding, more compassionate. Less accepting of consumed information, discourses, and magic-bullet solutions, and more loving towards what we inhabit: our connections, bodies, emotions.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for questioning. Thank you for staying.
May the coming year grant us health—not just the kind measured in clinical trials but also the kind felt when there’s coherence between what we think, feel, and how we live.
¡Until 2026!
