Pedro Guerrero, an eminent Colombian psychiatrist defined Helí Alzate as a “Sheep in wolf’s clothing.” Alzate considered himself to be “a perfect neurotic.” The truth is that due to his erudition and academic scholarship, his lifestyle and philosophy of life, and a certain halo of mystery that surrounded him, Alzate’s personality was fascinating. Dr. Alzate was a pioneer of sexology, sexuality education, and sex therapy in Latin America. With his comprehensive approach, Alzate made significant contributions to the psychological, biomedical, and sociocultural dimensions of human sexuality.
Helí Alzate was born in the small town of Apía, located in the main coffee region of Colombia. Both of his parents were devoted Catholics who raised him in the belief that sexual pleasure is a Devil’s temptation. When he finished his secondary education at the “Deogracias Cardona” High School in the nearby city of Pereira, he was already fluent in English and French, something exceptional in the...
Keywords
- Colombia
- sexual behavior
- erotic function
- female orgasm
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Useche Aldana, B. (2021). Alzate Sánchez, Helí. In: The Palgrave Biographical Encyclopedia of Psychology in Latin America. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38726-6_165-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38726-6_165-1
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