Letter from Colombia1

Colombia is a country of great contrasts and huge differences both in its territory and in the social life of its population. The beauty of its landscapes, the joy and cordiality of its people are amazingly contrasting with the endemic violence that has plagued its history: the sweeping Spanish conquest, the cruel independence wars, the republic period in the 19th century and, throughout the last 60 years, the confrontation between the Colombian State and the oldest guerrilla in the contemporary world. About the latter, political negotiations have been striving to put an end to the conflict by means of peace talks held in Havana for the last 4 years.

The capital of the República de Colombia is Bogotá, a cosmopolitan city highly developed in the economic, industrial and cultural fields and where the head office of the Colombian Society of Psychoanalysis, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, is placed.

In this letter I will summarize the history of the Colombian Society of Psychoanalysis, from the preliminary facts of its formation up to the moment it attained its Society status, approved by the IPA, and I will refer to the main events that led to the present state of affairs. I will also highlight the relations with foreign institutions and the contributions of prominent psychoanalysts during their academic stays in our country. Finally, I will make a general reference to the 31st Congress of the Latin American Psychoanalytic Federation (FEPAL, after the Spanish initials for Federación Psicoanalítica de América Latina).

The development of psychoanalysis in Colombia began with the progress of science, intelligentsia and politics which occurred in different countries in the American continent, thanks to the contributions of a number of intellectuals escaping from Europe because of the two world wars.

The first Freudian works came to Colombia around mid-1920 and one of its most remarkable readers was Dr José Francisco Socarrás, who was a medical student at U