últimas corrientes teóricas en los estudios de traducción - Gredos ...

GABRIEL MOYAL–SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION IN THE 19 TH CENTURY: P. PINEL
oneself being Virgil imagining himself in Dido’s frame of mind. To do so involves
absorbing, incorporating every fragment, every available detail of the heroine’s personality
and situation – Just as Virgil had done in order to attain the force of emotion his poem
conveys:
It is not enough to simply construct some vague image of a woman, one’s
imagination must be focused on a clear and distinct vision of what one wishes to represent,
without that one does not paint (represent) anything, imagination becomes cold and dry and
one’s verve remains vain and sterile (idem.).
To translate, Pinel tells his brother, you should read and re-read the same passage
a hundred times or more, “each time, you will perceive new meanings, more of its beauty
will charm you. This is the only way one can get anywhere with a translation; without this
you will always be stuck in the same place – and that is what happens in the translations
of your school [Et c’est ce qui arrive dans vos collèges]” (idem.).
IV. MORAL TREATMENT
In effect, Pinel is more explicit, goes into more detail and elaboration of method in
this letter to his younger brother on translation than he is in describing his “moral
treatment” – what, in the end he has become famous for. In his numerous and brief case
histories the procedures he outlines are more like what one might imagine as good,
common medical sense than exemplars of a method strictly determined by a coherent
theory. The rules or principles of treatment seem to have been decided on more by
specific circumstances than by scientific understanding of the nature of what is being
treated, or arrived at more by reaction and improvisation than out of previous knowledge.
Though, in his anecdotal case histories, he categorizes his patients according to
the existing classifications, liberally applies to them the labels – standard at the time – of
idiocy, imbecility, cretinism, etc., Pinel’s narratives demonstrate particular attention to
individual differences and a particular attentiveness to all aspects of idiosyncratic
behaviour. In effect, in view of Pinel’s own avowed ignorance as to the nature of the
disease he is facing, the traditional labels come to signify little in terms of the treatment
applied. In the end, the selection of treatment seems to depend more on occasion, on the
chance revelation of a detail, on catching an unexpected reaction by a patient until then
enclosed in silent passivity or resolutely engrossed in some imaginary existence.
The case of The Would-be King is a good example of this. After having been
interned at another asylum and undergoing the standard abusive treatment which only
served to enrage him all the more, a man who thought himself king was brought to
Bicêtre and placed in Pinel’s care. Pinel is at a loss as to how to treat him: Restraining
him only increases his fury, but, unrestrained, he destroys everything around him. One
day, the madman writes his wife a scathing, abusive letter accusing her of conspiring to
prolong his confinement to her advantage. Before sending the letter, he reads it to a
fellow inmate who reproaches him for the abuse and calmly advises the would-be king to
change his ways. After a lengthy discussion, the madman comes to agree. Pussin (Pinel’s
assistant) is summoned and decides to continue the discussion, asking him why, if he is
indeed the king, he does not use his absolute power to end his detention. Pussin
continues these friendly discussions on a daily basis, he shows him yet another lunatic
who thinks himself king. After a short while the madman comes to doubt his claim to
523