The May 9, 2015, at the Casa Orlandai in Barcelona, It was celebrated act of tribute to Josep Clusa.
The event was a recognition of his personal and professional career, and his commitment to community mental health.
Company, friend and founder of the Catalan Congress of Mental Health Foundation (FCCSM), Josep Clusa was its president between 2005 and 2013.
During these years he contributed decisively to consolidating the project and the values of the Foundation.
His vision, linked to the defense of rights and a community-based approach to mental health, left a deep imprint.
The tribute brought together colleagues, friends and professionals who had shared with him different stages of his career.
The interventions highlighted both their human dimension and their contribution to the field of mental health.
His ability to work, his commitment and his willingness to generate spaces for reflection and transformation were particularly remembered.
The event was also an opportunity to reaffirm the validity of the principles that Josep Clusa had defended throughout his career.
A shared memory that keeps alive their presence and their contribution to the history of FCCSM.
Josep Clusa 1934-2013
Psiquiatre, psicoanalista i President de la Fundació Congrès Català de Salut Mental. Va contribuir al projecte La Salut el Negoci de la Vida brindant-nos els seus molt valusosos coneixements generosa i desinteressadament.
«Les morts per suïcidi han augmentat a causa de la crisi».
«Sí, sembla que no hi hagi interès en estudiar-ho»
Gràcies amic.
Mandala realitzada per usuaris del Centre Pi Molist
In memory of Josep Clusa
Aquest és un espai obert a tothom que es vulgui expressar en relació a en Josep Clusa
In the framework of the sixth edition of l’Altre Festival, esdeveniment cultural de caràcter internacional que promou la difusió, la creació, participació i l’exhibició de les Arts Escèniques amb la participació i col·laboració de diferents col·lectius de l’àmbit de la salut mental, s’ha previst per el Friday, March 20th at 8:00 PM als Cinemes Girona, C/ Girona 175, an event for the presentation of the documentary filmed in Rosario (Argentina) and the awarding of the Josep Clusa Prize 2019.
Hi everyone!
It will surely be of interest to you, we'll be there!
Data March 20, 2020
Location: Cinemes Girona, C/ Girona, 175
Sometimes, sitting, after the very long day,
On the long road, I tempt myself and almost recognize you.
The other pain
Vicente Aleixandre
(Poem selected by David Clusa)
Dr. Josep Clusa i Matinero (1934–2013), a tireless worker, was a good, honest mental health professional, passionate about his profession and convinced of the dignity of the person above their condition as a mental patient.
Together with some colleagues from the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, he initiated a movement in Barcelona, already in the late sixties, to dignify the care of people affected by chronic psychotic processes. He led a large group of professionals who worked on the process of forced deinstitutionalization of the Mental Institute.
At that time, men and women with chronic psychotic conditions lived confined in the psychiatric institution, cut off from social life, without a closet to store their personal clothes, without identification cards, and without any contact with people outside the institution.
He fought tirelessly to open the psychiatric institution to the neighborhood. He promoted interaction with individuals and civic institutions, fostering welcome and acceptance by neighbors and citizens. They won the battle, though not without suffering casualties on their side. Today that experience is held up as an example to explain the process—still unfinished in our setting—of dismantling the asylistic organization of psychiatric care and the development of community-based, sectoral psychiatry.
His approach to the mentally ill was at all times rehabilitative and dignified their citizenship. His concern and his ability to analyze the social factors that contribute to people's psychological illness have always been clear-sighted and profound. This great capacity to approach the most human aspects of patients and families also led him to train as a psychoanalyst at the Spanish Psychoanalytic Society, part of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA). From there, he fostered and participated in the debate on bringing psychoanalytic knowledge to psychiatric care practice at all times. A testament to this is his article Psychoanalysis and psychiatric assistance (Catalan Journal of Psychoanalysis, 1990, volume II, no. 1 pp. 121-126).
Curious by nature, he was always attentive to scientific, political, technical, and cultural contributions that could lead to better patient care; he understood it as one more facet, the one he chose, of human development.
He was concerned with the (psycho)therapeutic aspects of the caregiver-patient relationship. For this reason, he promoted training, supervision, and emotional support projects for the various professionals involved in clinical assistance. In recent years, he also contributed to organizing training courses on psychosis and family at the Institut d’Estudis de la Salut (IES) of the Generalitat de Catalunya, along with Jaume Aguilar, David Clusa, Oriol Esteve, Lluis Isern, and under the supervision of Dr. Pere Folch.
He was president of the Fundació Congrés Català de Salut Mental for 8 years and, until his passing, he strongly promoted knowledge of various holistic mental health care models.
I have had the privilege and good fortune to enjoy a great friendship with him and his family for many years. Josep Clusa has always known how to take care of the people close to him: his family, his friends, colleagues, and patients. His professional and human legacy lives on through his family as well.
Having been able to connect with your conception of a humanistic psychiatry, working with a pioneer of community and rehabilitative psychiatry has been an honor for me and, of course, for the many patients you have helped so much.
Jaume Aguilar
Psychiatrist.
Psychoanalyst of the Spanish Psychoanalytic Society and the IPA.
En Pep was that good, kind man of the land.
A good father is always attentive and with a helping hand in calm times and adversity. A good grandfather who bowed his head to speak with his grandchildren. Liber, a good companion. A good friend.
A good psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who one day opened the doors of a psychiatric hospital to release the patients and restore their dignity.
A good, kind man who was never held back by anything. Always moving forward, with a steady step, seducing you and accompanying you to make that project, that idea, that dream a reality. Never a "no" for an answer, an "impossible," a "it can't be done." Always a "let's go," a "dream," a "let's do it." A "why not?"
A good, just, peaceful, committed, indignant, brave man, who enjoyed conversation and discussion, who listened to you and whom you enjoyed listening to, and who always, until the end, felt deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere. Someone said that this was the most beautiful quality of a revolutionary.
And who wouldn't love a man like that? And who wouldn't want a man like him by their side always to walk the path with?
They say we don't know where we're going when we die. But we, Pep, know where you are and, being there, you'll continue to make us better and perhaps, in time, we'll be able to be a little more like you, a little more like good, good men.
Hi, Pep!
Manel Anoro
September 2013
This August, Dr. Josep Clusa Matinero, known as Pep to many, passed away.
Psychiatrist Psychoanalyst, some from the Archive knew him on the day of the Presentation Memorial of the Young February 28th of this year.
This news made me feel like I was, once again, orphaned. However, I had been by her side since 1972, the year I started working at the Mental hospital in a women's ward near hers, until her retirement.
As always happens with us, I had many things left unsaid (we were lucky enough to see each other in person before August to show our appreciation once more), which is why I'm taking advantage of this space to communicate them.
I thank you Pep for having accompanied us in one of the most difficult stages we lived through, "The Dismantling of the Holy Cross's Mental" belonging to the Hospital de Sant Pau. Like us, you made the decision to defend the Project of Change and Continuity, which combined psychiatric beds with community services and a hospital for the neighborhood.
I thank you for your strength and enthusiasm in pursuing your dreams and not stopping until you achieve them. (Your insistence was well known to the authorities of Sant Pau, the Diputació, and the Generalitat). You wanted Integrated Psychiatric Services in the neighborhood: Day Center, Club, Special Work Center, Supported Housing, and Psychiatric Residence. And, we achieved it!! But, we lost the beds.
I appreciate your love for the group. Siempre fuiste un generador de grupos: el del equipo, el de sala, el del Departamento de Mujeres, el Interdepartamental, el de supervisión, el terapéutico…Además potenciaste la Asociación de Enfermos Mentales y la de Familiares de Salud Mental.
Your invitation for us to be active in them, to give space to our words, even though more than once they turned against you.
Thank you for teaching us to listen and to listen to each other., Including the unconscious, individual, group, and institutional. To seek dialogue between personal, political, psychiatric trends although at times, proudly assuming your power, you would only push forward.
That you were close both professionally and as an assistantAt the time when we didn't have your resonance, how difficult it was for us to digest it. That, even retired, you continued to consider our encounters as something transcendent, enhancing something so important to you, the emotional bond from our group.
And to finish This could go on forever Thank you for enthusiastically embracing the project of collecting our lived healthcare experience. You left us so soon! You didn't even have time to select your documentation and pass it to the archive and register it. We hope that the bond between those of us who remain will enable us to continue and fill this loneliness.
Mercedes Hidalgo Rebollo
September 2013
I will always remember Pep as a generous person, committed to universal human values and radically so to the most disadvantaged. This is the legacy he leaves us: the defense of mental health based on values.
I will always remember Pep as a person capable of standing firm amidst adversity, promoting group participation with a lucid and democratic smile.
I will always remember Pep as a friend, and it consoles me to be able to maintain the mark of this friendship with others.
I will always remember Pep.
Albert Mariné
October 23, 2013
Dear friend,
Reliable company.,
Distinguished Master.
Discreet home ,
Thinker coherent and loyal to your principles,
Tireless worker,
Knight fighting for necessary causes.
Attentive to the need and the opportune moment,
To cheat the one you could and they let you
And sometimes, you'd change your tone, and seriously speak to us of principles.
This is how I met you, Pep, and this is how I want to honor you.
We've agreed on so many things during the thirty-five years I've known you that now I don't know how we'll continue the fight if you're not here.
My constant reference, even in disagreement we have known how to respect each other. In difficult moments, I have never felt betrayed by you. You have been clear and so have I, and we have loved each other with the closeness and distance that each situation has required. And I have kept trust and loyalty for you.
Today, struck by your quiet farewell, as always, I want to let you know of my esteem and that of so many friends and colleagues who have been fortunate enough to know you. And of our respect.
I know your strength encourages us, even more so, in the work of making a better world, a world that is dignified and livable for all. We love you. I love you, Pep.
Àngels Vives Belmonte
24 d’agost 2013
I looked everywhere.
I haven't found you,
it was a dark day,
A stormy day.
Where is the comrade?
Who is your friend?
Where is the master?.
He who made the sun rise
Just by listening to you.
He looked everywhere
and I haven't found you,
The day continues to be dark
I trust the torment.
Thirty-five years
by your side,
they have accompanied us.
With honesty, you are an example,
Friendship has defended,
fighter for justice,
You haven't criticized anyone.
Pep, I've looked for you everywhere
when the fog clouds my vision
a I have found you again within me.
Albert Parés
August 2013
On August 22nd, prematurely and completely unexpectedly, our friend, colleague, and president of the Catalan Mental Health Congress Foundation, Josep Clusa, passed away.
Pep, as we friends called him, has left us a big void that we will have to fill with everything he offered us throughout his life.
Pep Clusa, a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and above all a mental health professional with a calling to serve a public, democratic, progressive, and high-quality health system, had a long and distinguished professional career. Among other activities, he was one of the driving forces behind our country's psychiatric reform process, and in particular the "conversion" of the Santa Creu Mental Health Institute and, later, as founder and director of the Dr. Pi i Molist Day Hospital, affiliated with the Psychiatry Service of Sant Pau Hospital. He participated in various commissions and working groups related to Mental Health Plans since the Generalitat assumed its health care competencies. He was an active member of several scientific and professional societies, such as the Spanish Society of Psychoanalysis and the Psychiatrists' Section of the Barcelona College of Physicians.
In the local sphere, in recent years, he had chaired the Health Group of the Barcelona City Council's Social Welfare Municipal Council. Since 2005, he held the presidency of the Catalan Congress of Mental Health Foundation, of which he was a founding member. From this organization, he promoted and led various initiatives in defense of and for the improvement of mental health in Catalonia.
En Pep Clusa, as we've been able to hear and share these past few days, was a good, generous, affectionate man who was appreciated and loved. Professionally, he was a committed, critical, combative, enthusiastic, and persistent colleague, a defender of universal human values and social justice.
Entre altres escrits i paraules de record, aquests dies, hem sentit: “En Pep, era d’aquelles persones que t’ajuden a créixer…”, “representant de les millors qualitats humanes…”, “compañero, maestro y ejemplo”, “una de les millors persones que he conegut…” i podríem seguir. En Pep, era això i molt més!
In his absence, but with his memory ever-present in everyone's minds and with his example, we will continue to work and fight for all of his projects and ideals.
Wherever you are, Pep, a big hug!
Victor Marti i Carrasco
Director FCCSM
Il y a une quinzaine d’années nous nous rencontrions lors d’un colloque que tu présidais à Barcelone. J’ai encore en mémoire ton accueil chaleureux et la découverte d’un grand nombre de références et de valeurs communes de François Tosquelles à Henri Ey. Tu dénonçais les dérives d’une médecine ultralibérale et postmoderne pour défendre une approche humaniste centrée sur le Sujet et son environnement. Très vite s’est nouée entre nous une solide amitié, et les échanges professionnels n’ont cessé de se développer entre le Congrès Catalan de Salud Mental (CCSM) et l’Association des Psychiatres Présidents de CME (ANPCME) mais également avec l’Association pour la Fondation Henri Ey (APFHEY). Les interventions communes se sont multipliées en France, en Allemagne et en Catalogne pour essayer de construire un mouvement européen de santé mentale autour des valeurs de la charte de Nice. Tu étais à Strasbourg il y a quelques semaines pour préparer une prochaine rencontre à Barcelone. Tu défendais avec force un «mouvement, européen pour la dignité, l’accessibilité et la continuité en santé mentale… Un mouvement ouvert aux professionnels de la santé mentale (psychiatres, psychologues, travailleurs sociaux, et infirmiers) qui défendent un espace d’aide et d’assistance dans le respect de la dignité de la personne en souffrance basé sur des principes d’accessibilité et de continuité nécessaires à un processus relationnel thérapeutique… » Tu es venu souvent à Thuir et tu as largement contribué à renforcer les liens professionnels des deux cotés des Pyrénées.
Beyond the colleague, I also think of the citizen, their preserved capacity for righteous indignation, their commitment to a more just society.
But today, I'm mainly thinking of my friend, so thoughtful, so interested in everything, so discreet yet so attentive and available when called upon. We communicated in a mix of French, Catalan, and Spanish, and we had made it a habit to help each other translate our respective texts. If I already miss your voice on the phone, so familiar, peaceful, and warm, I know, Pep, that you will always be there in my thoughts…
Dans ces moments difficiles je voulais transmettre mes amicales pensées et celles de l’Association et de la Conférence Nationale des Présidents de CME à son épouse, à David, à sa famille, à ses proches et ses amis.
Dr. Charles Alezrah
Thuir Hospital Center
Honorary President of ANPCME
Former Vice-President of the National Conference of CME Presidents
Secretary General of the Henri Ey Foundation Association