The Last Lesson of Professor Daniel Sampaio, Full Professor at the FMUL since 2008, was held at the Grand Auditorium of the Egas Moniz Building on 26 October last.

The Director of the Faculty, Professor Fausto J. Pinto, opened the session by thanking the presence of all. He said that Professor Daniel Sampaio marked an important period of the FMUL and Santa Maria Hospital as a physician, lecturer and researcher, recalling his life devoted to psychiatry and mental health as director of the hospital and university clinic. Professor Sampaio was one of the introducers of family therapy in Portugal, from the Portuguese Society of Family Therapy which he founded in 1979. Over his life he spurred several scientific societies and has authored a large number of publications, with a regular presence in numerous national and international fora. He dedicated his career to the study of young people’s problems and their families.



His concerns also involved the students of the Faculty of Medicine. He promoted Space S, a joint initiative of the Board of the Students’ Association and the Board of the Psychiatry and Psychology University Clinic, which has the support of the Faculty Board, helping to create a space open to all students who need professional help to work, deal with and reflect on key issues to their daily well-being.



"My main mistake was sometimes being very fanatic. But one thing is also true: without a bit of fanaticism we cannot impose our ideas“.

 Daniel Sampaio

In his Last Lesson, Professor Daniel Sampaio began by speaking of his long and rich journey started in 1946, when he was born in Lisbon, to doctor Arnaldo Sampaio, a pioneer of Public Health in Portugal, and Fernanda Bensaúde. Then came the choice of medicine, in a young man who said he was an existentialist involved in the opposition to the dictatorship and in associative activities. Psychiatry came naturally to the young man who liked to spend his entire days reading. He started his professional life in 1976 and that was when the enthusiasms started, which he refers to as fanaticisms. First group analysis, then family therapy. Little by little, teenagers became central in his work, first the suicide issue, then eating behaviour disorders - anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Still with regard to adolescents, he is concerned in particular with self-injurious behaviours, a new designation he proposes for what was known before as self-mutilation.

In addition to maintaining the master and doctoral classes at the Faculty of Medicine, Professor Daniel Sampaio coordinates the future Space S of medical students, developing and enabling the office in the psychiatric department, which was created by initiative of the students’ association.

It was a nostalgic speech. However, as he noted, "this is not an end, it's a fresh start". He thanked the house where he lived for 53 years and was cheered by a full auditorium with more than 500 people. Among the guests of honour were Dr Jorge Sampaio and his wife, General Ramalho Eanes and wife, Dr Manuel Alegre and his wife, Dr Correia de Campos, Dr Francisco George, and Dr Maria de Belém Roseira, among many others.