Madam Editor:
Catastrophe Theory, formulated by René Thom (1923–2002), has influenced the biological and health sciences by proposing a non-linear approach to explain abrupt transitions in complex systems. During the COVID-19 pandemic, sudden clinical transitions in respiratory conditions became evident, which motivates renewed interest in this model and its biomedical adaptation conceived by Dr. Bruno Günther Schaffeld (1914–2009).
This letter aims to highlight its conceptual and clinical relevance in the field of mental health, in order to understand complex conditions such as psychiatric crises, neurological disorders, and decompensated cognitive processes. Günther—a Chilean physiologist trained in Buenos Aires under Nobel Laureate Bernardo Houssay—stood out for applying this theory to the transition between health and disease. He proposed the “cusp catastrophe” model to describe how physiological states can change gradually or suddenly. These transitions may be reversible or irreversible, and their rapid inversion defines the concept of “anastrophe.”
