Wilfredo G. Santa

Wilfredo G. Santa is a Puerto Rican psychiatrist.

Table of contents

1 Biography
2 Theory of the Unconscious Guardian
3 Bibliography
4 External links

Biography

He was born in the city of Caguas, Puerto Rico, in 1949 and went to a remote elementary school in the town of San Lorenzo.

Dr. Santa published his first science fiction novel in 1974. He has written many books and articles relating to psychiatry and he has published several self-help books, some of which can be read for free on his internet page.

At age 15 he began his bachelor's degree at the University of Puerto Rico, department of Natural Sciences. He later moved to Spain where he studied medicine, but returned to Puerto Rico to complete his studies and gain his degree in medicine.

While living in Spain, he traveled through Europe, Asia and part of Africa. It was in this period of his life that he published his first novel, The Experiment, in 1974.

He became member of the Spanish cultural society called El Cachirulo. Later on he was chosen honorary member of the Editorial Collection of poetry Coleccion Puyal. At the meetings of El Cachirulo he had the honor of meeting writers Camilo Jose Cela and Jose Antonio Labordeta and painter Viola, sharing with them his ideas and his work. During this period he met the well known news writer Javier Ortega with whom he started a long friendship.

He went onto study psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School in the USA. While studying here he also acted as Chief of Residents and Medical Instructor of medical students and medical residents.

He later worked Metropolitan State Hospital of Massachusetts, the Gaebler Hospital, the Cambridge Research Institute, and the Cambridge Guidance Clinic.

During the period he had the opportunity of meeting and studying with Erick Erickson, and had several scientific articles published in The International Journal of Psychiatry

Dr. Santa returned to Puerto Rico in 1986 to become Medical Director of The Mayaguez Community Mental Health Center, where he created a philanthropic group called Friends of the Mental Health Center. Here he began a program for the treatment of children and adolescents with severe emotional problems. An inpatient unit was built which combined psychiatric treatment with educational help. His efforts were frustrated by the government who denied Santa operating funds for the unit once it was ready to open.

For nine years he hosted a radio talk show, Ya No Estas Solo (Never alone again), which is an educational program in the area of mental health.

Theory of the Unconscious Guardian

In Theory of the Unconscious Guardian Santa proposes that our unconscious mind responds to a primary duty of conservation or protection of ourselves, duty which is a natural defense mechanism unknown to us until now. Dr. Santa proposes in his book (in Spanish, El Inconsciente Protector) that that primary duty is divided by levels of priority which he nominates as those of "immediate emotional and physical protection" and those of "late emotional and physical protection". The author mentions that the cerebral cortex is the area of the knowledge and thinking, and is in that part of the brain where all the information that is received through the five senses, second by second, and the millions of inputs or data received daily and during all our life would be integrated. He also mentions that is there where the conscious and unconscious mind exists, and is also there where this "protective defense mechanism" exists (like an unknown guardian). We currently know that all the information received through our senses is fragmented in thousands of chemical-electric messages (working similar to a computer). Then he postulates that the information received by the very specialized cells of our sensory systems (auditory, olfactory, sight, skin and flavor cells) arrives at our cerebral cortex, where again is integrated into complete sensory pictures that are stored in our brain like "video clips". Dr. Santa postulates that our unconscious can act like a guard, grasping and constantly analyzing that information and extracting from it all possible sources of threat or danger to us, after that analysis, the mind proceeds to alert us by sending of messages trough the specific sensory nerves but in this case from inside the brain towards our senses in the form of what he call "sensory pictures". These "sensory pictures" are intentionally created by our brain to alert us of possible danger or threats to our or others' integrity. These messages can be visual, olfactory, tactile, auditory, and gustatory, or a combination them. This "normal defense mechanism" has been helping us for centuries, but confused with superstitions, hallucinations, visions or "angels talking to us". The Author explains the complete theory in his book where he presents and analyzes real life clinical cases to establish his point. He also attempts to scientifically refute the existence of the paranormal phenomena and superstitious beliefs including astrology, a position that has not been welcomed by believers.

Bibliography

The Experiment - 1974
La Gran Ventana-1994
- (The Great Window)'' - 1994
''Por Qué Me Dejaste de Amar - Si Soy Del Planeta Tierra-1996
- (Why Did You Stop Loving Me –If I am from Planet Earth) - 1996
La Salud Vista A taves de los Refranes-1978
Por Un Camino de Estrellas (poetry) - 1976
Sueños del Yukayeke (poetry) - 1974