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In this paper, Taiana details the emergence of Freud's ideas in Argentina during the first half of the twentieth century and contrasts this with the development of his theories in the United States during the same epoch. She uses the metaphor of a “cultural filter” to help explain differences in the reception of Freud's ideas in the two countries. Taiana defines such a filter as “the culturally specific paradigm operating in a given place and time” that “articulates an idiosyncratic reception pattern rooted in specific cultural and historical conditions” (p. 290).
Taiana describes three “pre-Freudian” cultural filter factors in Argentina and the United States that influenced the acceptance of Freud's ideas. The first factor is the predominance in both countries of somatic theories, originating in Germany and France, and referred to in the late 1800s to explain degeneracy and insanity from a hereditary perspective. The second common factor in both countries was the application of these hereditary theories to recent immigrants. The third factor, which differentiates the two countries, is the revolt by young American psychologists, psychiatrists, and neurologists against the somatic, hereditary theories. This revolt, based on pragmatic, moral, and statistical grounds, set the stage for the positive reception of Freudian ideas following Freud's lectures at Clark University in 1909.
In contrast, Freudian theories did not receive much welcome in Argentina for several more decades. Taiana cites several factors