ABSTRACT
Histories of the early reception of psychoanalysis in Latin America have traditionally focused on how the discipline was disseminated in different specialized circuits (medicine, psychiatry, criminology, psychology, among others) at the beginning of the twentieth century. Breaking with this trend, this chapter illuminates how the working class of Santiago de Chile received, challenged, and transformed psychoanalytic and psychological ideas. Between 1920 and 1950, anarchists, socialists, and communists incorporated the psychological dimension of the human being to address several problems associated with the class struggle. The chapter analyzes how working-class newspapers dealt with categories such as the unconscious and sexual drive, among others, to propose a notion of a new man capable of sustaining the class struggle, of navigating technology, and, above all, of resisting the hypnosis of capitalism. The chapter contributes to ongoing conversations on the history of psychoanalysis on two interrelated fronts: first, it illuminates a neglected portion in the history of the early reception of psychoanalysis and, second, it emphasizes working-class people’s resistance to hegemonic readings of psychoanalysis, thus calling into question their role as passive receivers of elitist ideas.
