History of the Vicissitudes in the Application of Psychoanalytic Method During the Last Fifty Years

‘The fact is that all writers create their precursors. Their work modifies our conception of the past, just as it is bound to modify the future.’ The Chair William Grossman quoted the writer Borges on assessing history. Using the psychoanalytic concept of Nachtraglichkeit, Grossman commented that ‘If a century of psychoanalysis has taught us anything it is that the writing of history expresses both personal and social Nachtraglichkeit as we both express the influences of the past and rewrite the past’. Thus, the very act of writing alters history.

Each of the panellists was assigned the task of describing the influence of the last fifty years on the psychoanalytic thinking and technique in his/her country. Naturally it is difficult to do justice to the inherent complexities in the proliferation of psychoanalytic thought and treatment during such a lengthy period. Yet our speakers detailed major themes of continuity along with powerful disruptions.

Gilda Sabsay Foks who was supposed to address this issue for Argentina and Latin America was unable to attend. Mariam Alizade graciously stepped in to provide an historical overview. She relied on Foks's written material while adding her own personal, lively and quite charming approach.

Latin American psychoanalysis, and particularly that of Buenos Aires (its major centre), was late in initiating formal psychoanalysis. It began in the early 1940s when Garma and Carcamo, having become acquainted in France, arrived in Buenos Aires determined to develop psychoanalytic work. They soon gathered around them a small coterie of like-minded people. It had the quality of Freud's initial circle, with members analysing and supervising one another. Nevertheless, because the early founders had sought analytic training in Europe, their theory and technique was consistent with the dominant Freudian perspective of that time.

Although Freudian thinking continued to be important, by the mid-fifties Klein's influence began to pervade their psycho