To the Editors:
I was distressed to see a July 21 deadline for the mail ballot on sending a letter to the Government of Argentina inquiring about missing physicians, psychiatrists and paramedicals. I was invited by the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association to be in Buenos Aires the week July 17-21 to mount an exhibit, show films and deliver a paper on the history of psychoanalysis. I could not use my first-hand experience to decide how to vote. I decided to take along with me a copy of the mailing to the members, show it to our colleagues in Argentina, and otherwise study the situation. I share my findings with you.
I discovered that psychoanalysis is booming in Buenos Aires. There are hundreds of candidates in training; senior colleagues have waiting lists of two and three years in their practices, and the institute functions openly and without surveillance. There has been a split and a Kleinian group has bought a building and applied for recognition as a provisional new institute. In addition, many psychologists seek whatever psychoanalytic training they can get outside the institute. In no way did I see evidence that psychoanalysis cannot be utilized in Buenos Aires.
Before going to Argentina I had heard that anti-semitism of a Nazi type was rife there. While in Buenos Aires I kept asking Jewish colleagues I met if they were in trouble because they were Jewish. One stated to me that there are over 500,000 Jews in Argentina and they are not picked on for being Jewish. Another bugged his eyes and pointed his finger at his head to convey the message that it was ridiculous. I spoke to several colleagues separately and together and no one conveyed a sense of peril over being identified as a Jew. I took a long walk for several miles alone and passed a synagogue. The iron gate was open, the door to the building was ajar, and there was no sign of a guard. I studied the front elevation for signs of anti-semitic defacement. About 15 feet up on one side I detected a small red spot the size of a cherry tomato that may have represented a hostile act.
I showed the list of names on page 4 of the June 21 mailing to our members to Argentine colleagues. It was pointed out to me that none of them belonged to the Association or were in training in the institute. It was stated to me over and over again that being a psychoanalyst or being a Jew was not a hazardous identification in Argentina. All colleagues stressed the destabilization being caused by the leftist guerrillas and those psychologists and sociologists associated with them. It was felt that the military was the only group capable of preventing the destruction of the country. One colleague stated that a bomb had been wired to his car which fortunately was found before it went off. No one considered the military as present day Nazis. No Argentine colleague expressed a positive sentiment on the resolution submitted by Dr. Walter Briehl to the members of the American Psychoanalytic Association.
To help take care of a typhus epidemic, in early May, 1945, as a young Evacuation Hospital psychiatrist, I arrived at Dachau Concentration Camp where I saw bodies piled up beside the “shower room.” Later I remained in Nuremberg as a psychiatrist of the Army General hospital serving the War Crimes Trial. I attended a session of the trial. I assisted in the treatment of one of the accused who was later found guilty and hanged.
Dr. Briehl's position appears to be that Argentina can be likened to Nazi Germany. I did not see the similarity myself.
Arcangelo R. T. D'Amore
Washington, D.C.