Freud in the Pampas: The Emergence and Development of a Psychoanalytic Culture in Argentina

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Summary: First book to examine the phenomenon of Freud in Argentina
Review: What an enigmatic country Argentina is: a South American country with a largely Spanish and Italian-descended citizenry that looks to France for cultural inspiration in architecture. A country that was poised at the beginning of the 20th century to take its place as a true world power, only to have its economy collapse and looting break out in its urban centers this last year. "The failure of Argentina as a nation," said The New Republic in 1978, "is the biggest political mystery of this century."

And now the puzzle that, counter to the anti-Freudian backlash that has swept the United States over the past two decades, the works of Sigmund Freud are largely gospel in Argentina. Anyone who questions the existence of the Oedipus complex, the author notes, may be treated by "Portenos" (citizens of Buenos Aires) the way a man questioning the virginity of Mary might be treated by the Pope. Argentine love for psychoanalysis has even spilled out into all of Latin America, and the "Argentine psychoanalyst" is so common in Madrid and Barcelona that it has become a stereotype. How did psychoanalysis become so entrenched in Argentine culture that budgeting for sessions is as reasonable to the average citizen as budgeting for food? It is the difficult task of this book to explain the development of this unexpected phenomenon.

Well-written, though a tad dry in some places, this book is the first of it's kind - the first to explore the emergence of the work of Freud as a central cultural force in Argentine thought, speech, and even newspaper editorials. And it is therefore indispensable to anyone interested the culture of this colorful country. Most interesting is the description of the governmental reaction to the spread of psychoanalysis; repressed during the first Peronist eras, the language of psychoanalysis was recently used by generals in addressing the nation regarding the state of the "disappeared" of the Dirty War of the late 70s and early 80s; he spoke of working through the grief process and the trauma that had been done to the Argentine "collective unconscious." The author notes that even some military men are now known to lie on a coach and talk about their dreams.