Jesus Duenas Becerra in the Rhythmic Lines of the Founding of Psicoballet

In what Branches of Psychology, Art and Culture do you like to Explore your Professional and Personal Concerns?

This question has two answers: a) in the field of Marti’s «science of the spirit» until my retirement in 2006, I developed my professional activities in teaching Rorschach Psychodiagnostics, as well as in the application of that method in clinical and sociocultural contexts. of personality research, created by the unique and unrepeatable genius of the Swiss psychiatrist Herman Rorschach (1884-1922), and for almost a quarter of a century, I have maintained a mental health segment in the radio medium in the magazine RP-105, which airs from 6:00 to 8:00 am on the national radio station Radio Progresso; and b) in the field of art and culture, I focus my attention and interest, expressed primarily through the journalistic genres chronicle, interview and review, in the fields of dance, cinematographic, and artistic-literary criticism.

How do you Approach Psychoballet?

My approach to Psychoballet was a consequence of a request made to me by Dr. Eduardo Bernabé Ordaz Ducungé, founding director of the Psychiatric Hospital of Havana, to evaluate, from an objective-subjective perspective par excellence, the usefulness of this psychotherapeutic method, created by Dr. Georgina Fariñas García, J’UNESCO Group of Psychoballet, and active member of the International Dance Council (CID-UNESCO), which masterfully combines science and art, since Dr. Fariñas He had requested help, because the «rodents of other people’s intelligence and talent» as Marti’s genius called the «envious» who proliferate in any society, wanted to take him away. That was, in summary, my initial approach to that great contribution of Dr. Fariñas to the development of psychology and art on the island and far beyond our geographical borders.

Why does the Work of Dr. and Colleague Georgina Fariñas Deserve to be Followed?

Very simple: in the report that, at the request of Dr. Ordaz, he sent him in writing, after having witnessed a Psychoballet gala, presented at the I Congress of Health Psychology, which took place in the halls of the Ministry of Health Public of the Republic of Cuba, in 1979, I notified him that if Psicoballet only served to sketch a slight smile on the faces of those creatures with serious neuropsychic or physical-motor disorders, the existence of Psicoballet would be more than justified in a society like ours, which is governed by the bioethical principle YES to diversity, NO to exclusion. Immediately, the unforgettable Commander of the Rebel Army made Psicoballet official and incorporated it as a department to that health institution, a vanguard in the fields of mental health and psychosocial rehabilitation. From then on, I became, in my own right, a faithful admirer and defender of Psychoballet, a treatment method that has just celebrated 5 decades of existence.

In your Free Time, what are your Preferences for Cultural and Narrative Entertainment?

I spend my free time listening to instrumental music on the national radio station Radio Encyclopedia, my faithful companion when I have to write some journalistic work; cinema, especially martial arts films (not because of the «blows» that martial artists give themselves, but because of the teachings of the masters of these disciplines, which serve not only to use them in that context, but for everything in the life), read good Cuban and universal literature (I am an avid reader, and I am always on the «hunt» for a book that teaches me something, because as the José Martí says, «books are man’s best friends», and in In my humble opinion, there is nothing that strengthens the human mind and soul more than reading a good book.

Why is Dr. Jesús Dueñas Becerra Interested in Maintaining Critical-Literary Action in the Pages of UNEAC and Periodical Publications?

My intellectual and spiritual production has an outlet, not only on the Website of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), but also on the Radio Progresso Website​ with which I have collaborated for almost a quarter of a century, and in the CubaLiteraria Portal, as well as in the José Martí National Library Magazine, in the Vivarium magazine, press organ of the homonymous chair, attached to the «Padre Félix Varela Cultural Center», in the International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Research, of which I am a member of its Editorial Committee, and in the Journal of the Psychiatric Hospital of Havana, where I had different fixed sections for several years.

What do you Recommend to Professionals Approaching the world of Island Art and Culture?

I am not given to giving advice, but, to please you, I will only tell you that all professional work in the fields of art and culture demands of those of us who perform such an honorable role: study, work and dedication of body, mind and soul to what we do with love and passion. In my almost 8 decades of life, and more than half a century of dedication to psychology, artistic-literary criticism and cultural journalism, I can tell you that I have ventured (as I explained in advance), into the teaching and application of Psychodiagnostics of Rorschach with an orthodox analytical orientation, in dance criticism, to whose specialized literature I have contributed two monographs: Dance as seen by a psychologist and Dance as seen by a theater critic. Dance art and cultural journalism, published by Editions Vivarium, and included in the CID- UNESCO Virtual Library. However, I totally subscribe to a biblical phrase from Saint Augustine: «the day you stop in your walk and say: this far, no further, then you will begin to die». I am willing to continue growing intellectually and spiritually until my mission on earth concludes and I go to meet, in sidereal space, the «Universal Spirit» leitmotif in the poetic-literary and journalistic work of the José Martí.

Conversing with Dr. Dueñas Becerra is caressing the intellect and artistic sensitivity of the human being. I entrust that certainty to every reader to periodically read him, guaranteed by the virtue of those who read him and are captivated by his letters and analysis in each tribute. The specialty, first, only argued the gift of the word, also the love of the experience itself of the analysis from within the event that narrates, observes or the protagonist of the story that narrates. As an interlocutor of her experiential discourse, her intellectual work calls me again, first because of its place in Latin America, in the school of Rorschach’s Psychodiagnosis, now Psychoballet, although journalism, the love of art and letters will surely continue to bring us together in eternal complicity.​