From a Psychiatric Epidemiology to a Positive Psychology. History of the Scientific Trajectory of María Martina Casullo

The purpose of this historiographic paper is to carry out a critical analysis about one particular moment of the scientific trajectory of Maria Martina Casullo (1940-2008). In the first place, the article reviews her studies about the risk factors in adolescents from an epidemiologic-preventive approach since 1985. Secondly, the work points out how these epidemiologic studies concerning depression, suicidal risk and psychological unease were the kickoff for the analysis of the salutogenic or protective processes that prevent people to fall ill even when facing adverse environmental situations. Finally, this study concludes that these researches are the main record of the field that subsequently Casullo defined as salutogenic or positive psychology in Argentine at the end of 20th century. Thus, this paper critically analyzes the naturalized and whig tradition in psychology that has neglected the ideological and political conditions of the emergence of positive psychology.