The role played by Santiago Ramón y Cajal in the development of other disciplines: Biology, Psychology, Anthropology and Archaeology

• Autores: Mariano Ayarzagüena Sanz
• Localización: European Journal of anatomy, ISSN-e 1136-4890, Vol. 23, Nº. Extra 1 (Honoring Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934), an 'exemplary man'), 2019 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Supplement 1), págs. 67-72
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Santiago Ramón y Cajal is well-known for his work on histology and pathological anatomy, but his scientific restlessness led him to become in-volved in many other fields, on which his influence also left its mark. His reputation as a histologist has concealed the other disciplines in which he took an active part, particularly after he received the Nobel Prize for Medicine that he shared with Golgi in 1906. Ramón y Cajal was a true humanist who excelled in many fields, today considered as very different disciplines. In some cases, the role he played in the development of these other disci-plines has not been studied in all its depth, alt-hough his foray into the field of photography has indeed been analysed, for example. More recently, his work as a psychologist has also been pub-lished, since Ramón y Cajal came to refute the psychoanalytic theory that Freud was spreading at that time.

    Less attention has been paid to his involvement in the development of other disciplines that at that time were also included in the field of Natural Sci-ences, such as Paleontology, Prehistory and An-thropology, and especially as a result of his posi-tion as director of the different institutions that he came to preside, especially after receiving the No-bel Prize in Medicine. This, then, is the objective of our contribution.

    Although he was most notable for his manage-ment as president of the Junta para la Ampliación de Estudios (Committee for Extension of Studies and Scientific Research- JAE), we should not for-get that he was also president of the Spanish Soci-ety of Natural History, director of the Laboratory for Biological Research, and honorary president of the Spanish Society of Anthropology, Ethnography and Prehistory. In all these institutions he played an outstanding role.