Brazilian Psychosocial Histories of Psychoanalysis (Studies in the Psychosocial)

This edited volume provides a critical history of psychoanalysis in Brazil. Written mainly by Brazilian historians and practitioners of psychoanalysis, the chapters address some central questions about psychoanalysis' social role. How did psychoanalysis develop and flourish in a society in which modernisation was accompanied by inequality, authoritarianism and violence? How did psychoanalysis survive in Brazil alongside censorship and repression? Through a variety of lenses, the contributors demonstrate how psychoanalysis in Brazil presented itself as progressive and transformative and maintained this self-image even as it developed institutional structures that reproduce the authoritarianism of the wider society. This novel work offers rich conceptual and practical insights for academic researchers and practitioners of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy, and addresses methodological questions of concern to academics working across the social sciences. Crucially, it also outlines a distinctive vision of psychoanalysis seen through a Brazilian lens, which will be of interest to readers seeking to confront the Eurocentric and North American bias of much psychoanalytic debate. Belinda Mandelbaum is Associate Professor in the Department of Social and Work Psychology at the Psychology Institute, University of São Paulo, Brazil. Stephen Frosh is Professor in the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom. Rafael Alves Lima is Researcher at the Laboratory of Social Theory, Philosophy and Psychoanalysis at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. . Acknowledgements 6 Contents 8 Notes on Contributors 11 Part I Introduction and Prelude 16 1 Introduction 17 Psychoanalysis, History, Brazil 17 Psychosocial Histories 21 Chapter Outlines 24 A Note on the Text 32 References 32 2 Prelude: ‘Global’ Psychoanalysis in Latin America: Some Reflections 35 Psychoanalysis in Latin America or Latin American Psychoanalysis 37 How Should We Approach the Social and Cultural Study of Psychoanalysis in Latin America? 46 References 49 Part II Methodological Issues 52 3 Writing the History of Psychoanalysis in Brazil: Some Questions for Historiographic Research 53 Periodisation 56 Filiations 57 The History of the Present Time 59 Truth and the Construction of History 60 Testimonial 61 Repressed Memory 63 For the Constitution of Archives of Psychoanalysis 66 References 68 4 Wounds of Dictatorship in Brazilian Psychoanalysis: Traumatic Revivals in Research on the History of Psychoanalysis 71 Historical Context 71 The Research 73 Research Timeline 74 Nazism and Brazilian Dictatorship 76 Dictatorship and Life 77 Research and Trauma 81 Lack of Evidence and Oblivion of History 83 References 86 5 Learning from cases—The Problem of Sharing Knowledge in Psychoanalysis 88 Case Studies 88 The Impossibility of the Case 94 Institutional Histories 95 References 102 6 Clinical Cases in the History of Brazilian Psychoanalysis 104 Introduction 104 Discursive Hybridity 107 Normative Descriptivism 115 Canonical Form of the Clinical Case 119 The Lacanian Inversion 123 Conclusion 125 References 129 7 Politics of Secrecy in the History of Psychoanalysis 131 For a Metapsychology of the Secret 133 Politics of Secrecy 140 Secrecy and Archive: Historiographic Consequences for the History of Psychoanalysis 145 Conclusion 148 References 150 Part III Specific Histories of Psychoanalysis in Brazil 154 8 Between Race Degeneration and the Primitive Unconscious: The Circulation of Psychoanalytic Theories in Brazil 155 From Degeneration of the Race to Physical and Situational Factors: The Diseases of Brazil 157 The First Contours of the Appropriation of Psychoanalysis in Rio De Janeiro 159 Prevention: Psychoanalysis and Mental Hygiene 164 Modernising the Country by Analysing Individuals 167 Final Considerations 169 References 171 9 Franco Da Rocha and the Psychiatric Discourse in São Paulo (1898–1914) 175 Franco Da Rocha (1864–1933) 177 Revista Médica De São Paulo (1898–1914) 178 Franco Da Rocha’s Discourse in the Revista 180 Final Remarks 192 References 193 10 For a Conservative Modernisation: The Introduction of Social Psychology in Brazil Through Psychoanalysis 195 One Step Back: The Ancestors of Social Psychology in Brazil 196 Social Psychology and Conservative Modernisation 199 Social Psychology Through Psychoanalysis: Between Inheritance and the Environment 204 Concrete Authoritarianism, Theoretical Authoritarianism: A Dialectical Conclusion 211 References 214 11 The Savage Rests in Every Soul: Social Misfits and the Primitive Unconscious in Arthur Ramos’s Social Psychology 216 Introduction 216 A Historical Outline 218 Approaches 219 Arthur Ramos: Introductory Remarks 223 Between Eras: The Introduction to Social Psychology 230 References 234 12 The “Fearless Bandeirante”: Durval Marcondes, Psychoanalysis and Conservative Modernisation in Brazil 237 Introduction 237 A “Fearless Bandeirante” in Psychoanalysis 241 Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism and the Poetry of Durval Marcondes 243 A Psychoanalysis in Service of the Normalisation of Childhood 245 Teaching at USP in Dictatorial Times 248 Conclusion 253 References 254 13 A Psychoanalyst Between Fame and Oblivion: Karl Weissmann and the Spread of Psychoanalysis in Brazil 256 Karl Weissmann’s Early Days and His Work with Psychoanalysis: From Vigorous Psychoanalyst to Magician of Hypnotism 257 Maturity: From the Ghost of Communism to Medical Publications 263 A Psychoanalyst, but Not so Much: On Censorship and Erasure in the History of Psychoanalysis 266 Final Considerations 271 References 273 14 A Psychoanalysis for Subversion: Psychoanalytic Discourse on the ‘new Youth’ in Dictatorial Brazil (1964–1985) 275 A Psychoanalytic Take on Youth Protest and the Counterculture 280 The (Psychoanalytic) Message of ‘Roda-Viva’ 285 Final Considerations 288 References 290 15 Gay Psychoanalytic Candidates in São Paulo, Today: A Recollection of Interviews 294 References 309 16 Pioneers of Lacan’s Ideas in Brazil: An Essay on the History of the Psychoanalytic Movement 311 Transmission of Psychoanalysis at University 312 About the Foundation 315 Final Considerations 322 References 323 17 Mythification Demand? The Assimilation of the Black Legend of Jacques Lacan in Brazil 324 Introduction 324 Was It a Methodological Mistake? 326 Is It a Black Legend? Notes About Method in Roudinesco’s Work 327 Where the Arrow Misses the Target... What Does It Strike? 330 A Brazilian Target? On the 1998 Schism 332 A Case from Minas Gerais: The Imaginary Dimension of Transference as Authoritarianism 335 Final Considerations 339 References 341 Index 344 This edited volume provides a critical history of psychoanalysis in Brazil. Written mainly by Brazilian historians and practitioners of psychoanalysis, the chapters address some central questions about psychoanalysis' social role. How did psychoanalysis develop and flourish in a society in which modernisation was accompanied by inequality, authoritarianism and violence? How did psychoanalysis survive in Brazil alongside censorship and repression? Through a variety of lenses, the contributors demonstrate how psychoanalysis in Brazil presented itself as progressive and transformative and maintained this self-image even as it developed institutional structures that reproduce the authoritarianism of the wider society. This novel work offers rich conceptual and practical insights for academic researchers and practitioners of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy, and addresses methodological questions of concern to academics working across the social sciences. Crucially, it also outlines a distinctive vision of psychoanalysis seen through a Brazilian lens, which will be of interest to readers seeking to confront the Eurocentric and North American bias of much psychoanalytic debate. Belinda Mandelbaum is Associate Professor in the Department of Social and Work Psychology at the Psychology Institute, University of São Paulo, Brazil. Stephen Frosh is Professor in the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom. Rafael Alves Lima is Researcher at the Laboratory of Social Theory, Philosophy and Psychoanalysis at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. .