Reason and Emotion: A Physician's Life Story

About the Book

This book describes Oscar’s life story and his efforts to develop an academic career, to heal emotional wounds and to develop a coherent worldview. His medical career focused on patient care, research and the study of kidney diseases. To get to the root causes of his emotional problems, he rejected Freud’s drive-frustration theory and embraced both object relations and attachment theories. He believed that an adequate attachment to the primary caregiver facilitates the development of the true self, the regulation of affect and the ability to project intentions, beliefs and perceptions into the minds of others. Only securely attached children are able to separate from the mother and to acquire the skills necessary for socialization. After his retirement he was able to formulate a personal philosophy of life and to articulate a worldview which was based on Naturalism, Humanism and Agnosticism.

About the Author

The author was born in Cuba and obtained his medical degree in the United States. He is certifi ed by the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Nephrology. He is the author of many scientifi c articles published in peer-reviewed medical journals and about a dozen book chapters in textbooks of Nephrology. In addition, he published two books: “Beyond the Science/Religion Debate” and “Methodological Naturalism and Planetary Humanism” after his retirement from academic medicine. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University Of Miami School Of Medicine.