ABSTRACT
Psychoanalysis in Argentina plays an unusual role in the world today, and has fulfilled a unique place in the intellectual history of this past century. It would be hard to think of any nation in which the transformation in ideas which Freud initiated has had more impact than on Argentinian culture. Today it has to be striking not only how numerous psychoanalytic groups are in Argentina, but how widespread an influence varieties of the teachings espoused by Freudian disciples have succeeded in making. For an outsider it is remarkable how academic departments of psychology within universities (unlike in the United States) are aware of the significance of psychoanalytic doctrine; so that not just among therapeutic practitioners Freud became a powerful force, but throughout Argentinian life his work continues to attract the most intense kind of interest. A whole chapter of the life of the mind, at least since 1910 and long before Freud’s death in 1939, can be taken up with how Freud’s work was received by Argentinians.
