The authors explore the psychoanalytic concepts of vínculo and dialectical spiral within the context of a historical review of the development of psychoanalysis in the Río de la Plata region of Uruguay and Argentina. In particular, they discuss the work of Enrique Pichon-Rivière, Madeleine and Willy Baranger, and José Bleger. Illustrative clinical material is included from a case described by Bleger. Convergences and divergences are noted between the theoretical and clinical approaches of these authors, on the one hand, and those of more traditionally Freudian, Kleinian, and other schools of analysis, on the other. Also, the authors underline some questions about the nature of vínculo that are currently under discussion in the Río de la Plata.