You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
I started my psychoanalytic learning and political activism in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was the spring of 1981, a time of turmoil and search for personal and collective freedom. I migrated from Brazil to the United States in 1990 with my husband, daughter, and all twenty-four volumes of the Brazilian edition of the works of Sigmund Freud. A decade later, I became a dual citizen. Today I live in Austin, Texas. My daily analytical work occurs in Spanish, Portuguese, and English with people spread throughout the Americas. Geopolitics matters very much in my work. It is rooted in these experiences and bearing in mind how necropolitics is occurring in Brazil that I want to share an important analytic action: a petition letter.
This “Letter to Brazilians” was written by analysts who choose to express indignation and claim protection from the State for its citizens. It was published by SBPRJ (Brazilian Society of Psychoanalysis of Rio de Janeiro) in 2020 and republished in March 2021. I am grateful to the SBPRJ Board of Directors for this letter. (). As of June 7th 2021, the total deaths by COVID in Brazil surpass 473,495 people, an unimaginable horror.
Denise Lemos Zaborowski, PhD.
LETTER TO BRAZILIANS
We, psychoanalysts of the Brazilian Society of Psychoanalysis of Rio de Janeiro - SBPRJ, join the doctors of Rio de Janeiro and all scientific institutions in repudiation of the authorities' negligence in the face of the terrifying situation we find ourselves in, with the daily loss of more than 1000 lives and stories, causing an unprecedented collective trauma and grief that is difficult to elaborate.
The disdain shown by this administration for its people, its health, and the scientific community can be evaluated by the thousands of deaths that we count and by the place we occupy in international statistics