The Early Expansion of Psychoanalysis in Latin America: The Key Role of the Argentine Revista de Psicoanálisis

Abstract

Celebratory historical accounts about the expansion of psychoanalysis in Latin America tend to emphasize the atypical biographies, the outstanding personalities, and the original ideas of certain psychoanalysts considered as “pioneers.” This chapter, however, focuses on the deliberate strategies and thoughtful mechanisms used by the founders of the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association (APA) in order to become a continental reference regarding Freudian discourse and practices. In this context, the Revista de Psicoanálisis, created in 1943, was conceived from the very beginning as a tool for the dissemination of psychoanalysis in international medical circles. In order to understand how the journal shaped the early life of the APA, this chapter examines notes published in the Revista’s early years that provide valuable data about a complex sociability network involving trips, conferences, seminars, fund-raising, celebrations, new candidates, visiting specialists, loans for training, etc. Moreover, these early notes provide information about foreign authors, preferred topics, and upcoming books that are helpful to understand the progressive establishment of a Kleinian hegemony at the transnational level. This chapter thus examines the Revista de psicoanálisis’s key role in the configuration of transnational psychoanalysis.