Entre lo Individual y lo Social: Debates sobre lo Psicológico en el Caso de Isidora Gual, 1890-1892

Abstract

In this article, we present and discuss the case of Isidora Gual as a way to study the relationship between psychology and society in the last decade of the XIX century. We provide an overview of the cultural and social conditions during Isidora's life and the debates about her actions in print media and the court. Gual became the object of medical, anthropological, psychological, and moral discourses after the body of her dead son was found. This tragedy sparked intense debates among those trying to explain her child's death. Isidora's case reveals how medicine, the law, and Puerto Rican culture attempted to explain the mind during the XIX century.