DOCSLIB.ORG

Dreaming Woman: Argentine Modernity and the Psychoanalytic Diaspora

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Dreaming Woman: Argentine Modernity and the Psychoanalytic Diaspora Dreaming Woman: Argentine Modernity and the Psychoanalytic Diaspora by Rachel E. Greenspan Graduate Program in Literature Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Ranjana Khanna, Supervisor ___________________________ Rey Chow ___________________________ Antonio Viego ___________________________ Federico Finchelstein Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Program in Literature in the Graduate School of Duke University 2017 ABSTRACT Dreaming Woman: Argentine Modernity and the Psychoanalytic Diaspora by Rachel E. Greenspan Graduate Program in Literature Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Ranjana Khanna, Supervisor ___________________________ Rey Chow ___________________________ Antonio Viego ___________________________ Federico Finchelstein An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Program in Literature in the Graduate School of Duke University 2017 Copyright by Rachel E. Greenspan 2017 Abstract Dreaming Woman decenters Europeanist histories of psychoanalysis by examining the ways in which forced migration has shaped psychoanalytic theories of sexual difference and evolving modes of feminist practice in Latin America. Home to more psychoanalysts per capita than any other country, Argentina emerged as a site of political asylum during WWII and of exilic dissemination during periods of military dictatorship. Taking Argentina as an exemplary case of psychoanalytic entrenchment that disrupts neat oppositions between Europe and its others, Dreaming Woman reframes the psychoanalytic archive on sexual difference as a discourse on migration. Tracing the coincident rise of psychoanalysis and authoritarianism in Argentina, I examine the role of migrant women, and of discourses on Woman, in establishing new relationships between psychoanalysis and politics. Through a multimedia archive that includes literature, autobiography, pop culture artifacts, transnational correspondences, clinical case studies, theoretical essays, and artwork, Dreaming Woman approaches psychoanalysis as a heterogeneous set of clinical and cultural practices through which Argentines have articulated distinctive feminist and anti-imperialist projects throughout the twentieth century. These archival materials share a concern for female sexuality as a national problem—that is, a problem tied to national identity and a problem for the nation-state to solve. They also show the transformative impact of clinical encounters with female sexuality, maternal grief, and iv torture on modern theories of the subject. In view of contemporary anxieties surrounding global migration, the case of Argentina shows that psychoanalysis has always been a political practice forged through exile, one that offers an indispensable conceptual framework for addressing the persistent psychic traces of displacement. v Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ............................................................................................................................. viii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... x Introduction: Psychoanalysis in the Feminine .......................................................................... 1 Chapter 1. Postal Legacies: Ocampo, Tagore, Lacan ............................................................. 20 Transnational Ministrations of Love ................................................................................. 20 Psychoanalysis and the Love Letter .................................................................................. 29 The Guest and the Alien Flower ........................................................................................ 39 Napoleon, when he was still Buonaparte ......................................................................... 58 No Legacy Without Transference ...................................................................................... 77 Chapter 2. Dreaming Woman: Image, Place, and the Aesthetics of Exile .......................... 83 Figure and Ground ............................................................................................................... 89 The Seeing Cure .................................................................................................................. 116 Chapter 3. From Figure to Flesh: Psychosomatic Medicine and the Maternal Body ..... 128 The Rejecting Mother, the Agential Body ....................................................................... 140 Reproduction and Occupation ......................................................................................... 155 Chapter 4. Psychoanalytic Praxis: Reparative Politics and the Socialization of Loss .... 179 To Question the Weltanschauung .................................................................................... 179 Reparation and the Common Object ............................................................................... 192 Solidarity, Group Analysis and the Socialization of Loss ............................................ 217 vi Antipsychiatry and/or Psychoanalytic Praxis ................................................................ 231 Chapter 5. Strange Things Happen Here: Torture, (Anti-)humanism, and the Disappeared Woman ................................................................................................................ 247 Strange Things Happen Here ........................................................................................... 247 “It’s hard to untie this knot.” ............................................................................................ 257 Tortured Intimacies, Sadean Ethics ................................................................................. 271 Exemplarity and Occlusion: Naming Argentina ........................................................... 287 Conclusions. Postscript: The Autographic Supplement ...................................................... 299 Kiki ....................................................................................................................................... 299 The Textual Mirror ............................................................................................................. 305 The Supplement .................................................................................................................. 320 Works Cited ............................................................................................................................... 328 Biography ................................................................................................................................... 339 vii List of Figures Figure 1: Tagore, “Prabahini,” from the original manuscript of Purabi, composed on December 11, 1924. ...................................................................................................................... 47 Figure 2: Personal photograph of Tagore (left) with Ocampo (right) at her family estate in San Isidro. ................................................................................................................................ 48 Figure 3: Envelope for a letter from Rabindranath Tagore to Victoria Ocampo, sent from India to Argentina, opened by censor. ..................................................................................... 55 Figure 4: Envelope for a letter from Rabindranath Tagore to Victoria Ocampo, sent from India to Argentina, opened by censor. ..................................................................................... 56 Figure 5: A letter from Bengal, India to Buenos Aires, Argentina dated March 18, 1942. Sent by Tagore’s son, Rathindranath, after his father’s death. ............................................. 56 Figure 6: Envelope for a letter from Rabindranath Tagore to Victoria Ocampo, sent from India to Argentina, passed by censor and redirected to her apartment at Viamonte 5118. ........................................................................................................................................................ 57 Figure 7: Grete Stern and Richard Rest, “Sueños de indecision” (1950) ............................. 95 Figure 8: Grete Stern, “Los sueños de ambición” (1950) ..................................................... 103 Figure 9: Grete Stern, “Sueño de frutos” (1951) .................................................................... 110 Figure 10: Grete Stern, “Sueño cósmico” (1949) ................................................................... 111 Figure 11: Grete Stern, Cuerpos celestes (1949) ....................................................................... 115 Figure 12: Grete Stern, “Los sueños de inhibiciones” (1950) .............................................. 116 Figure 13: Nicola Costantino, Los sueños de Nicola (2012) .................................................... 116 Figure 14: Nicola Costantino, Eva. Los sueños (2013) ............................................................ 119 Figure 15: C. G. jung, untitled painting in The Red Book (2009) .......................................... 120 Figure 16: Photograph of Fidel Castro (left),
Load more

Recommended publications
  • El Extraño Mundo De Silvina Ocampo
    El extraño mundo de Silvina Ocampo A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures of the Collage of Arts and Sciences by María Rebeca Deibel M.A University of Northern Iowa November 2012 Comittee Chair: Enrique A. Giordano, Ph.D. Abstract This dissertation brings a new approach to Silvina Ocampo studies by using the theory of uncanny and fantastic fields. It has been a great contribution the theoretical foundations of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud The Uncanny and Irène Bessière Le récit fantastique. The main book is titled Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion by Rosemary Jackson as it integrates the notions raised by Tzvetan Todorov and Irène Bessière. Jackson's contribution has allowed me to clarify the definition of the fantastic and the uncanny to the development of this dissertation. I think the term paraxial deserves special mention because it reaffirms the fantastic not categorically defined within the real or unreal, but rather is considered as an ambiguity. Some short stories of the writer show signs of ambiguity, a characteristic of the fantastic, but this does not classify all her works within this category. I do not intend to place it within a literary genre because it’s narrative is presented in influence of various literary forms. I proved, however, that it leans more toward the uncanny rather than other narrative categories. Silvina Ocampo is an Argentina writer who seduces readers with an approach contrary to convention.
    [Show full text]
  • GIORGIO AGAMBEN, JM COETZEE, and KAZUO ISHIGURO a Dissertati
    THE DISCOURSE OF HUMAN DIGNITY AND TECHNIQUES OF DISEMPOWERMENT: GIORGIO AGAMBEN, J. M. COETZEE, AND KAZUO ISHIGURO A Dissertation by MALEK HARDAN MOHAMMAD Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December 2010 Major Subject: English The Discourse of Human Dignity and Techniques of Disempowerment: Giorgio Agamben, J. M. Coetzee, and Kazuo Ishiguro Copyright 2010 Malek Hardan Mohammad THE DISCOURSE OF HUMAN DIGNITY AND TECHNIQUES OF DISEMPOWERMENT: GIORGIO AGAMBEN, J. M. COETZEE, AND KAZUO ISHIGURO A Dissertation by MALEK HARDAN MOHAMMAD Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved by: Chair of Committee, David McWhirter Committee Members, Marian Eide Katherine Kelly Stjepan Mestrovic Head of Department, Jimmie Killingsworth December 2010 Major Subject: English iii ABSTRACT The Discourse of Human Dignity and Techniques of Disempowerment: Giorgio Agamben, J. M. Coetzee, and Kazuo Ishiguro. (December 2010) Malek Hardan Mohammad, B.A, University of Aleppo; M.A., Angelo State University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. David McWhirter A multidisciplinary approach is needed to critique the frequently invoked but seldom questioned notion of ―human dignity,‖ a discursive tool that is subtly serving abusive power structures while seemingly promoting human rights. The discourse of human dignity misrepresents the meaning of empowerment for modern citizens, making them interested more in political gestures and less in profit, comfort and protection from abuse. Dignity‘s epistemes— self-assertion, recognition, political action, public-spiritedness, responsibility, resistance, the denial of animal instinct, sacrifice—should not be human ideals, for they are exactly the opposite of the sovereign‘s characteristics and because they are responsible for recursive violence that preserves the status quo.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction and Will Be Subject to Additions and Corrections the Early History of El Museo Del Barrio Is Complex
    This timeline and exhibition chronology is in process INTRODUCTION and will be subject to additions and corrections The early history of El Museo del Barrio is complex. as more information comes to light. All artists’ It is intertwined with popular struggles in New York names have been input directly from brochures, City over access to, and control of, educational and catalogues, or other existing archival documentation. cultural resources. Part and parcel of the national We apologize for any oversights, misspellings, or Civil Rights movement, public demonstrations, inconsistencies. A careful reader will note names strikes, boycotts, and sit-ins were held in New York that shift between the Spanish and the Anglicized City between 1966 and 1969. African American and versions. Names have been kept, for the most part, Puerto Rican parents, teachers and community as they are in the original documents. However, these activists in Central and East Harlem demanded variations, in themselves, reveal much about identity that their children— who, by 1967, composed the and cultural awareness during these decades. majority of the public school population—receive an education that acknowledged and addressed their We are grateful for any documentation that can diverse cultural heritages. In 1969, these community- be brought to our attention by the public at large. based groups attained their goal of decentralizing This timeline focuses on the defining institutional the Board of Education. They began to participate landmarks, as well as the major visual arts in structuring school curricula, and directed financial exhibitions. There are numerous events that still resources towards ethnic-specific didactic programs need to be documented and included, such as public that enriched their children’s education.
    [Show full text]
  • Cita, Apropiación Y Montaje En La Obra De Grete Stern Paula Bertúa
    Paula Bertúa. Poética de la reinvención. (Auto) cita, apropiación y montaje en la obra de Grete Stern. Papeles de Trabajo, Año 4, N° 7, abril 2011, pp. 74-92. Poética de la reinvención. (Auto) cita, apropiación y montaje en la obra de Grete Stern Paula Bertúa (UBA – CONICET) Resumen En este trabajo se analiza una serie de fotomontajes elaborados por la fotógrafa Grete Stern para ilustrar una columna psicológico-sentimental de la revista femenina Idilio. En ellos, Stern retomó, mediante la cita y la apropiación, fotografías ya concebidas, propias y ajenas, para intervenirlas en nuevas composiciones que resignifican sus efectos estéticos, redefiniendo, a su vez, el rol de la práctica artística en un medio de masas. Palabras clave: Fotografía – Cita – Apropiación – Montaje – Grete Stern. Keywords: Photography – Quote – Appropiation – Montage – Grete Stern. Grete Stern en Idilio En agosto de 1948 la fotógrafa Grete Stern comenzaba un trabajo en colaboración de largo aliento que significaría una intervención cultural singular y original en el campo de las publicaciones populares argentinas de mediados de siglo. Convocada por el sociólogo Gino Germani participaría en una columna de consultorio psicológico- sentimental llamada “El psicoanálisis le ayudará” en la revista femenina Idilio, de la Editorial Abril.46 La sección fue el producto de una intervención interdisciplinaria, que 46 Idilio se comenzó a publicar el 26 de octubre de 1948, por la editorial Abril, fundada por Césare Civita. En sus páginas convivían una serie de géneros discursivos habituales en las revistas dirigidas a la mujer: cartas de lectoras, columna de consultorio sentimental, artículos referidos a problemáticas hogareñas, moda y belleza, publicidades e historias de amor, y novelas por entregas.
    [Show full text]
  • Women Workers in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay
    * UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR FRANCES PERKINS, Secretary WOMEN’S BUREAU MARY ANDERSON, Director + WOMEN WORKERS IN ARGENTINA, CHILE, AND URUGUAY ; J^TCSO^ Bulletin of the Women’s Bureau, No. 195 *rf % M as > UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE t WASHINGTON : 1942 r ) For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. Price 5 cents Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis CONTENTS Page. Letter of transmittal m The professions 2 Government service----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Business 2 Personal service---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 w Industry— Agriculture. a Industrial home work--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Labor legislation-------------------------- 9 Trade unions and organizations------------------------------------------------------------- 10 Classes and schools 11 Women’s organizations------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13 References 15 TABLES Extent of Women’s employment in chief woman-employing industries---------- 3 Employment of women in 26 factories visited 3 ii Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Letter of Transmittal United States Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau, Washington, October 27, 191$. Madam: I have the honor to transmit a report summarizing the findings of the Women’s Bureau staff member appointed as its Inter- American
    [Show full text]
  • Readings on Alternative Perspectives to Global Law and Policy
    READINGS ON ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVES TO GLOBAL LAW AND POLICY Lama Abu-Odeh Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center Islamic law, comparative law, women‟s rights Books and Contributions to Books Crimes of Honor: Overview, in Suad Joseph (ed), Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures, Volume 2, Brill Academic Publishers 221-222 (2005) Honor: Feminist Approaches to, in Suad Joseph (ed), Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures, Volume 2, Brill Academic Publishers 225-227 (2005) Egyptian Feminism: Trapped in the Identity Debate, in Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and Barbara Freyer Stowasser (eds), Islamic Law and the Challenges of Modernity, AltaMira Press 183-212 (2004) Articles On Law and the Transition to Market: The Case of Egypt, 23 Emory International Law Review 351- 381 (2009) Reactions: Natsu Taylor Saito‟s ‟Colonial Presumptions: The War on Terror and the Roots of American Exceptionalism‟, 1 Georgetown Journal of Law and Modern Critical Race Perspectives 111 (2009) A Radical Rejection of Universal Jurisdiction, 116 Yale Law Journal (The Pocket Part) 393-396 (2007) Commentary on John Makdisi‟s “Survey of AALS Law Schools Teaching Islamic Law”, 55 Journal of Legal Education 589-591 (2005) Law: Modern Family Law, 1800 - Present: Arab States, in Suad Joseph (ed), Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures, Volume 2, Brill Academic Publishers 459-463 (2005) Egyptian Feminism: Trapped in the Identity Debate, 16 Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 145-191 (2004) Modernizing Muslim Family Law: The Case of Egypt, 37 Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 1043-1146 (2004) The Politics of (Mis)recognition: Islamic Law Pedagogy in American Academia, 52 American Journal of Comparative Law 789-824 (2004) Commentary on Islam and International Law: Toward a Positive Mutual Engagement to Realize Shared Ideals, 98 American Society of International Law Proceedings 167-168 (2004) The Case For Binationalism: Why One State--Liberal and Constitutionalist--May Be the Key to Peace in the Middle East, Boston Review 4-7 (Dec.
    [Show full text]
  • VISITOR FIGURES 2015 the Grand Totals: Exhibition and Museum Attendance Numbers Worldwide
    SPECIAL REPORT VISITOR FIGURES2015 The grand totals: exhibition and museum attendance numbers worldwide VISITOR FIGURES 2015 The grand totals: exhibition and museum attendance numbers worldwide THE DIRECTORS THE ARTISTS They tell us about their unlikely Six artists on the exhibitions blockbusters and surprise flops that made their careers U. ALLEMANDI & CO. PUBLISHING LTD. EVENTS, POLITICS AND ECONOMICS MONTHLY. EST. 1983, VOL. XXV, NO. 278, APRIL 2016 II THE ART NEWSPAPER SPECIAL REPORT Number 278, April 2016 SPECIAL REPORT VISITOR FIGURES 2015 Exhibition & museum attendance survey JEFF KOONS is the toast of Paris and Bilbao But Taipei tops our annual attendance survey, with a show of works by the 20th-century artist Chen Cheng-po atisse cut-outs in New attracted more than 9,500 visitors a day to Rio de York, Monet land- Janeiro’s Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil. Despite scapes in Tokyo and Brazil’s economic crisis, the deep-pocketed bank’s Picasso paintings in foundation continued to organise high-profile, free Rio de Janeiro were exhibitions. Works by Kandinsky from the State overshadowed in 2015 Russian Museum in St Petersburg also packed the by attendance at nine punters in Brasilia, Rio, São Paulo and Belo Hori- shows organised by the zonte; more than one million people saw the show National Palace Museum in Taipei. The eclectic on its Brazilian tour. Mgroup of exhibitions topped our annual survey Bernard Arnault’s new Fondation Louis Vuitton despite the fact that the Taiwanese national muse- used its ample resources to organise a loan show um’s total attendance fell slightly during its 90th that any public museum would envy.
    [Show full text]
  • The Challenges of Women's Participation In
    International IDEA, 2002, Women in Parliament, Stockholm (http://www.idea.int). This is an English translation of Elisa María Carrio, “Los retos de la participacíon de las mujeres en el Parlamento. Una nueva Mirada al caso argentine,” in International IDEA Mujeres en el Parlamento. Más allá de los números, Stockholm, Sweden, 2002. (This translation may vary slightly from the original text. If there are discrepancies in the meaning, the original Spanish version is the definitive text). CASE STUDY The Challenges of Women’s Participation in the Legislature: A New Look at Argentina ELISA MARÍA CARRIO In Argentina, mass-based political parties included a degree of the participation of women going back to their early days, from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century, but it was only in the 1980s that we saw the massive emergence of women in party politics. This led to changes in attitude in the search for points of agreement and common objectives. Many women understood that the struggle against women’s oppression should not be subordinated to other struggles, as it was actually compatible with them, and should be waged simultaneously. It was an historic opportunity, as Argentina was emerging from a lengthy dictatorship in which women had the precedent of the mobilizations of the grandmothers and mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, in their white scarves. While women in Argentina have had the right to “vote and be elected” since 1947, women’s systematic exclusion from the real spheres of public power posed one of the most crucial challenges to, and criticisms of, Argentina’s democracy.
    [Show full text]
  • Melanie Klein's Concept of Counter-Transference Taken From
    7 Melanie Klein’s Concept of Counter-Transference Taken from Unpublished Material Esmeralda Macedo, Carlos Amaral Dias In this essay we discuss the concept of counter-transference based on some of Melanie Klein’s unpublished notes from the archives in the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, in London. Hence, the discussion here incorporates material that has never been published be- fore1. Until 1950 the most commonly accepted conception of counter- -transference was that of Freud, who saw it as an obstacle that should be removed. When Paula Heimann’s ideas became widely known this mechanism started to be seen as an important aid to understanding the patient. Klein always rejected that perspective and remained close to Freud’s ideas. In the 1960s, the works of Bion and Money-Kyrle show that, along with the concept of projective identification, counter-transfe- rence was a valuable tool for understanding the patient in both its patho- logical and benign forms. What we show in this article is that in spite of not having conceptualized her ideas about the subject, Klein’s approach to it was very much in accordance with those authors with respect to the vicissitudes of the therapeutic relationship. 1 Researched by Emeralda Macedo for her PhD thesis prepared under the supervision of Professor Carlos Amaral Dias and Professor Rui Aragão Oliveira (Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada/Universidade Nova de Lisboa, February 2007). Interações número 19. pp. 7-21. © do Autor 2010 8 Interações SOME PERSPECTIVES OF COUNTER-TRANSFERENCE One of the most important conceptions of counter-transference was Paula Heimann’s formulation, published in 1950.
    [Show full text]
  • Prospects for Lacanian Psychoanalysis in Law Richard E
    Washington and Lee Law Review Volume 54 | Issue 3 Article 9 Summer 6-1-1997 Does Law Need an Analyst? Prospects for Lacanian Psychoanalysis in Law Richard E. Redding Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr Part of the Jurisprudence Commons, and the Law and Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Richard E. Redding, Does Law Need an Analyst? Prospects for Lacanian Psychoanalysis in Law, 54 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1119 (1997), https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr/vol54/iss3/9 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Washington and Lee Law Review at Washington & Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington and Lee Law Review by an authorized editor of Washington & Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Book Review Does Law Need an Analyst? Prospects for Lacanian Psychoanalysis in Law LACAN AND THE SUBJECT OF LAW: TOWARD A PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITI- CAL LEGAL THEORY. By David S. Caudill. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1997. 206 pp. $15.95 paper, $49.95 cloth. Reviewed by Richard E. Redding The debate continues over the merits of French psychoanalytic theorist Jacques Lacan - was he a "charlatan"' or an "intellectual hero?"2 Enter David Caudill's book, Lacan and the Subject oftaw: Toward a Psychoana- lytic CriticalLegal Theory.3 In providing practical applications of Lacan to the law, the book will no doubt be seen as an important contribution in resolving the debate. Caudill, a law professor with a Ph.D.
    [Show full text]
  • THE Roudinesco Review
    by FRED INGLIS Our Dark Side: a history of perversion by Elisabeth Roudinesco Translated by David Macey Polity Press, 188pp ISBN 978-0-7456-4592-6 (hb) 4593-3 (pb) Sex is a subject much discussed in the official literature of French intellectual life. The works of Georges Bataille, Jean Genet, Michel de Certeau, Michel Foucault towering above them all, bear voluble witness to the imperturbable attentiveness with which the grand maitres à penser will calmly analyse the much mentioned unmentionables of carnal knowledge, taking due intellectual pride in counting in such knowledge as part of the natural purview of the inclusively human sciences. The genteel Anglophones can't touch them. Now the masters are joined by a maitresse and one intimately schooled in the mysteries of that Freudian psychoanalysis which is the de rigeur training in inwardness of the Ecoles Normales for whom the outward half of thought is built out of Marx's dark materialism. Elisabeth Roudinesco is, however, far less Olympian an authority than Foucault, not at all a serene determinist of discourse, and less a historian than an exasperated spirit, admonishing on a decidedly grand and unevidenced scale a humankind disfigured by the hideous enormities of the past and rendered irredeemably trivial by the antinomian self-indulgence of the present. Her brief book – too brief, surely, for so giant and extended a topic – starts out by handing conceptual centrality to that elusive, untranslatable and here untranslated word 'jouissance', which has locked in its jewelled depths something of pleasure, of enjoyment, of desire, of voluptuous excess. Whatever it is, it drives perversion and, Roudinesco promises us, we are all perverts, glad with all our hearts to find our indecorum get an airing from Paolo Pasolini, Alfred Hitchcock, or Last Tango in Paris .
    [Show full text]
  • The Argentinean Exception Proves the Rule Patricia Gherovici
    Abstract: Given the huge popularity of psychoanalysis in Argentina, one C R can wonder whether it has replaced politics. Could psychoanalysis have I come to inhabit a space where politics is reduced to its cultural aspect? S The Argentinean I Or has it substituted religion? Rejecting these two theses, I argue that S psychoanalysis is important because of its foundational link to the Law. To show this, I will discuss two recent Argentine films: La Fuga (The & Escape, 2001, Eduardo Mignona) and El secreto de sus ojos (The Secrets Exception Proves C of their Eyes, 2009, Juan Jose Campanella). They will allow me to explore R the complex rapport of Argentinean society with the Law as I suggest that I T psychoanalysis’ popularity is due to it being a symptom of the Law’s void. I the Rule Q Keywords: Psychoanalysis in Argentina, politics, state terror, state of U E exception, Law / Volume 6 / When one thinks of Argentina, psychoanalysis comes to mind as a Issue 1 national symbol as representative as soccer, tango, the disappeared, Patricia Gherovici and the Madres de Plaza de Mayo. One remarkable feature of Argentina is that this system created by Freud managed to develop and flourish under conditions of severely restricted political freedom. Psychoanalysis had an early but limited reception in the beginning of the twentieth century, but later became a serious profession that experienced exponential growth after 1955 as part of a rapid cultural modernization. By the 1960s, a psychoanalytic culture had been solidly established in Argentina. Psychoanalysis was a common language across social classes that appeared in magazines and television shows.1 In the clinical practice, psychoanalysis was increasingly seen as a tool for social change, and Freud was read along with Marx.
    [Show full text]