Essay Questions

Provide a Psychoanalytic elucidation of doctors’ refusal to intervene in the plague.

Father Jude elaborates, “The Viceroy can only do so much. He has attempted to send doctors here, but they decline to come. They would rather suffer the King’s castigation. You cannot blame them. Naturally, they are afraid.” The doctors display an unreserved dread of death (which is attributed to Death instinct). They employ Avoidance to preserve their lives since going to Mexico upsurges their possibility of contracting and succumbing to the plague.

Deconstruct Father Antonio’s ideology on “the treatment for La Mona”.

Father Antonio recommends, “The Holy office must stop persecuting the curanderos, for they are an asset to us. Many are truly learned texoxotla ticitl, doctors and surgeons. It is not important that they speak Latin. They save more lives with their vulgar language than we do with our sanctified words…La Mona is not a curable disease.” Father Antonio’s endorsements surmise that he does not regard Curanderos to be malevolent witchcraft. Permitting them to practice their native medicine would be contributory in alleviating the repercussions of La mona although it is not treatable. Modern and traditional medicine ought to be complementary.