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Tell Me Your Dreams: Psychoanalysis and Popular Culture in Buenos Aires, 1930-1950*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Mariano Ben Plotkin
Mariano Ben Plotkin*
Affiliation:
Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
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How does one write the history of psychoanalysis? Although the question seems too broad it is still pertinent. In countries like Argentina, where psychoanalysis has become a Weltanschauung, traditional approaches from the history of science, the history of ideas or institutional history are insufficient to give a full account of its cultural implantation. There is a level of cultural reception that is unaccounted for by those approximations but which is, nevertheless, a constitutive component of the history of the discipline. Although some authors have identified a common “latin pattern” in the reception of psychoanalysis, national differences sometimes overcome similarities. Whereas psychoanalysis, for instance, started to be discussed in Argentine medical circles as early as in the 1910s, it did not have the influence in avant-garde literature that it had in France or Brazil. However, since the early 1920s psychoanalysis had an impact in popular magazines and publications in Buenos Aires. Only a multilayered analysis can provide a good understanding of the different patterns of reception of psychoanalysis. Elsewhere I dealt with the impact of psychoanalysis in the medical profession and in the teaching of psychology in Buenos Aires. My goal here is to analyze another area of diffusion of psychoanalysis: popular periodical publications. Although the massive diffusion of psychoanalysis in Argentina began in the 1960s, since the late 1920s popular magazines and publications introduced discussions on psychoanalysis and its creator, thus defining a space through which the discipline inserted itself in the culture of the city of Buenos Aires. It seems clear that in Argentina publications aimed at an expanded lower-middle class public, outside and beyond the restricted circle of the “republic of letters,” constituted an earlier path of reception for psychoanalysis than what is usually considered high literature.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 55 , Issue 4 , April 1999 , pp. 601 - 629
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1999

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Footnotes

*

The research for this article, part of a larger project, had the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Joint Committee on Latin American Studies of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies, with funds provided by the NEH. I wish to express my gratitude to Tulio Halperin Donghi, Thomas Glick, and two anonymous reviewers of The Americas for their insightful comments.

References

1 I believe that in order to write a history of the reception of psychoanalysis it is necessary to use a very broad definition of it. Therefore, the use of the term psychoanalysis throughout this article does not refer to a therapeutic technique or a precise discussion of its theory, but to a broad universe of discourses on topics inspired in psychoanalysis or that are legitimized in it. A note on dream interpretation published in a newspaper, for instance, becomes relevant when the author claims that his discussion is based on psychoanalytic theory (regardless of whether the version of psychoanalysis presented is accurate or not). Similarly, the term “reception” refers in general to the existence of discussions around psychoanalysis, and not necessarily acceptance of its theoretical or technical foundations.

2 Argentina is today one of the countries with the largest psychoanalytic community in the world. A discussion of the importance of psychoanalysis in Argentine culture can be found in Dispositio. Revista Americana de Estudios Comparados y Culturales/American Journal of Comparative and Cultural Studies, XVIII: 45 (Ann Arbor, MI, 1993). The whole issue was devoted to the discussion of the diffusion of psychoanalysis in Argentina. For a discussion of the possibility of psychoanalysis of becoming a Weltanschauung, see Freud, Sigmund, “The Question of a Wltanschauung,” The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Translated from German under the General Editorship of Strachey, James. Vol. 22 (London: The Hogart Press, 1991), pp.158–182.Google Scholar See also Figuera, Servulo Augusto, “Common (Under) ground in Psychoanalysis: The Question of a Weltanschauung Revisited” (Mimeo, n/d/), 27 pp.Google Scholar A provocative discussion on the writing of the history of psychoanalysis which touches upon important methodological issues is Roudinesco, Elisabeth, Généalogies (Paris: Fayard, 1994), pp. 59–138.Google Scholar

3 Glick, Thomas, “The Reception of Psychoanalysis in France: Lacan and Company” Intellectual History Newsletter, 13 (1991), 64.Google Scholar

4 Plotkin, Mariano, “Freud, Politics and the Porteños: The Reception of Psychoanalysis in Buenos Aires, 1910–1943” Hispanic American Historical Review, 77:1 (February, 1997), 45–74,CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Plotkin, , “Freud en la Universidad de Buenos Aires: la primera etapa hasta la creación de la carrera de psicología” Estudios Inter disciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe, 7:1 (Tel-Aviv, January-June 1996), 23–40.Google Scholar For a full discussion on the reception and cultural impact of psychoanalysis in Buenos Aires, I have to refer readers to my book in preparation Freud in the Pampas.

5 Turkle, Sherry, Psychoanalytic Politics: Jacques Lacan and Freud’s French Revolution, 2nd edition (New York: The Guilford Press, 1992),Google Scholar Preface, “Psychoanalytic Politics in the 1990s.”

6 Although I am aware of the problems involved in the use of the category “popular culture,” throughout this article I will use a broad definition of it such as Jean Franco’s. For her popular culture is “a spectrum of signifying practices and pleasurable activities most of which fall beside the controlling discipline of official schooling. It is the area … which is traversed by class stratification and subtle subcultural distinctions acquired largely in a non-institutional setting.” See Franco, Jean, “What’s in a name? Popular Culture Theories and their Limitations” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, Volume 1 (1982).Google Scholar See also Burke, Peter, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1978),Google Scholar Prologue.

7 Roudinesco, , La bataille de cent ans. Histoire de la psychanalyse en France, vol. 2, (Paris: Seuil, 1986),Google Scholar ch 1. See also Breton, André, “First Manifesto of Surrealism” in Harrison, Charles and, Woods, Peter, eds., Art in Theory 1900–1990: An Anthology of Changing Ideas, (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1992), pp. 432–439.Google Scholar An interesting discussion on the similarities and differences between surrealists’ and Freud’s conception of unconscious is Starobisnki, Jean, “Freud, Breton, Myers,” in Starobisnki, , La relation critique (Paris: Gallimard, 1970), pp. 320–341.Google Scholar

8 Yutaka Sagawa, Roberto, “A psicanálise pionera e os pioneiros da psicanálise em Sao Paulo” Cultura da psicanálise, Figueira, Servulo A., ed., (Sao Paulo: Brasiliense, 1985).Google Scholar See, for instance, see Andrade’s, Mario de “Prefácio Interessantíssimo” (1922),Google Scholar and de Andrade’s, Oswald “Manifesto Antropófago” (1928),Google Scholar reproduced in Schwarz, Roberto, Vanguardas Latino-Americanas. Polemicas, Manifestos e Textos Críticos (Sao Paulo: Editora da Universidade de Sao Paulo, 1995), pp. 120–126 Google Scholar and 142–148.

9 Ideas and explanation inspired in psychoanalysis can be found in the literature of Roberto Arlt, particularly in Los siete locos and its sequel Los lanzallamas, as well as some of his short fiction. See also some of the works by Ezequiel Martínez Estrada, in particular in his Radiografía de la Pampa. In 1946, playwright Arturo Capdevila published a play titled Consumación de Sigmund Freud. The plot is centered around Freud’s trip to the deeps of the unconscious.

10 See, for instance, widely, Marco Denevi’s read novel Rosaura a las diez which won an important litarary prize in 1955.Google Scholar

11 Córdova Iturburu, Cayetano, La revolución Martínfierrista (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Culturales Argentinas, 1962), pp. 38–39.Google Scholar Sarlo, , Beatriz, , Una modernidad periférica: Buenos Aires 1920 y 1930 (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Nueva Visión, 1988), p. 107.Google Scholar

12 The word modernism is used here to describe two different things. In Brazil the word Modernism refers specifically to an Avant-garde movement that originated in the “Modernist Week” of Sao Paulo in 1922. In Argentina (and elsewhere in Latin America), what is known as modernism (in literature) is a literary movement originating with Rubén Darío. It was in opposition to this tendency that Argentine Avant-garde defined themselves. For a discussion of the meaning of modernism in different contexts, see Morse, Richard, “The Multiverse of Latin American Identity c. 1920–c. 1970” in Bethel, Leslie, ed., Ideas and Ideologies in Twentieth Century Latin America (Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 1996), pp. 3–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 While the Futurist Manifesto read, “ … a roaring automobile that seems to run over a machine-gun is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace,” Martín Fierro “sustains that a good Hispano Suiza is a much more perfect WORK OF ART than a portable chair from the times of Louis XV.”

14 “Hoy Marinetti está calvo y es casado, se aproxima a la cincuentena.” Martín Fierro, III; 229–30 (June 8, 1926), 3 Revista Martín Fierro 1924–1927, Edicion Facsimilar (Buenos Aires: Fondo Nacional de las Artes, 1995), 209.

15 Martín Fierro, III, 30–31 (July 8, 1926), 10. This is one of the very few references to psychoanalysis that I could find in Martín Fierro. The only one I could find in another Avant-garde magazine, Proa, is in an article by Guillermo de Torre where he criticizes surrealism. See Guillermo de Torre, “Neodadaismo y superrealismo” Proa II, 6 (January 1925). Many writers participated in both magazines.

16 See, for instance, Giusti, , Roberto, , “La polémica sobre Freud” Nosotros, 18, 182 (July, 1924), 396;Google Scholar Rabinovich, Marcos, “Psicología freudiana,” Nosotros 24, 248 (January 1930), 91.Google Scholar Nosotros also reproduced some sections of Giovani Papini’s Gog, including his fake interview to Freud, and a review by philosopher Francisco Romero of volume XIV of Freud’s Obras Completas. See Romero, , “El porvenir de las religiones por S. Freud,” Nosotros 25; 261 (February 1931), 210–211.Google Scholar

17 Sagitario a cultural journal published in La Plata, for instance, published two articles on the topic including Mariátegui’s, José Carlos notorious “El ‘freudismo’ en la literatura contemporánea” Sagitario. Revista de Humanidades, 2:8 (July-August 1927);Google Scholar see also Ibérico Rodríguez, Mariano, “Bergson y Freud” Ibid. 2:7 (October-November 1926).Google Scholar

18 See also “El punto de vista de Jung, C.G. y la “realidad del alma”. Sur 5:11 (August, 1935), 97–104.Google Scholar Sur also reviewed Freud's Moses and the Origin of Monotheism. See Sur IX: 57 (June, 1939).

19 It seems that Ocampo's interest for Jung started in 1929 and that she introduced his works to French writer Pierre Drieu la Rochelle. See letter from Drieu la Rochelle to Victoria Ocampo dated on July 19, 1929 reproduced in Ocampo, Victoria, Autobiografia, Vol 5; Versailles-Keyserling-Paris-Dreiu (Buenos Aires: Sur, 1983).Google Scholar Moreover Count Hermann Von Keyserling, who was a friend of Jung and who also had a convulsed relationship with Ocampo, wrote on her to Jung.

20 Sur also published on French Existentialism, Surrealism and other European (particularly French) intellectual currents.

21 See Glick, , Thomas, , “The Naked Science: Psychoanalysis in Spain, 1914–1948” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 24 (1982), 533–551 Google Scholar and Glick, , “Psicoanálisis, reforma sexual y política en la España de entre-guerras” Estudios de Historia Social, 16–17 (1981), 7–25.Google Scholar

22 Castelnuovo, , Elías, , Psicoanálisis sexual y psicoanálisis social. Examen de una nueva teoría de desorientación política y económica (Buenos Aires: Claridad, 1938), 19.Google Scholar On the “Boedo Group,” see Leland, Christopher, The Last Happy Men: The Generation of 1922, Fiction and the Argentine Reality (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1986).Google Scholar Some leftist doctors such as Gregorio Bermann, Emilio Pizarro Crespo, Jorge Thénon, or Enrique Mouchet, however did accept psychoanalysis as a modernizing tool for psychiatry. See, Vezzetti, , Aventuras de Freud en el país de los Argentinos. De josé Ingenieros a Enrique Pichon Rivière (Buenos Aires: Paidós, 1996), pp. 136–182, and Plotkin, “Freud, Politics and the Porteños.”Google Scholar

23 On Raúl González Tuñón and psychoanalysis, see Sarlo, , Beatriz, , Una modernidad periférica. Buenos Aires 1920 y 1930 (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Nueva Visión, 1988), pp. 138–150.Google Scholar

24 See Vezzetti, Hugo, Freud en Buenos Aires, 1910–1939, second edition (Buenos Aires: Universidad Nacional del Quilmes 1996),Google Scholar “Introducción” and Plotkin, “Freud, Politics.”

25 See Vezzetti, , Hugo, , “Historia del freudismo e historia de la sexualidad: el género sexológico en Buenos Aires de los treinta” Prisma. Revista de Historia Intelectual, 1 (1997), 211–218.Google Scholar

26 See, for instance the commentator’s discussion of Erdosain’s unconscious desires and their origins in the relationship between the latter and his father during childhood in Arlt, Los Lanzallamas (1931). See Arlt, , Roberto, , Los siete locos, Los lanzallamas. Prólogo, , edición Adolfo Prieto, vocabulario y cronología de (Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1978), pp. 312–313.Google Scholar

27 See, for instance Estrada, Ezequiel Martínez, Radiografía de las Pampas (Buenos Aires: Hyspamerica, 1986. 1st. edition, 1933).Google Scholar See also Sigal, León, “La radiografía de la pampa: un saber espectral,” in Estrada, Martínez, Radiografía de la pampa, edición crítica. Pollman, Leo, coordinador (Colección Archivos. México: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 1993).Google Scholar

28 In 1969 Martínez Estrada said: “I had two guides … Spengler … and Freud … Even the most nearsighted would have noticed that the configuration of Radiografía de la Pampa is owed to Spengler … [and] to Freud, with its examination of the disturbance of the social psyche … ” Estrada, Ezequiel Martínez, “Sobre Radiografía de la Pampa (preguntas y respuestas) in Leer y escribir (Buenos Aires: 1969),Google Scholar cited in Sigal, León, “La radiografía de la Pampa: un saber expectral” Estrada, E. Martínez, Radiografía de la Pampa, Edición crítica; Polman, Leo, (coordinador) (Mexico: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 1993), p. 503.Google Scholar

29 See Hugo Vezzetti, Aventuras de Freud.

30 Scobie, James, Buenos Aires: Plaza to Suburb, 1870–1910 (New York: Oxford U.P., 1974),Google Scholar Romero, José Luis and Romero, Luis Alberto, eds., Buenos Aires, historia de cuatro siglos (Buenos Aires, 1983) 2 vols,Google Scholar Walter, Richard, Politics and Urban Growth in Buenos Aires, 1910–1942 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), and Sarlo, , Una modernidad periférica.Google Scholar

31 On cheap books, see Romero, , Luis Alberto, , “Una empresa cultural: los libros baratos” in Sectores populares cultura y política. Buenos Aires en la entreguerra, Romero, , Alberto, Luis and Gutiérrez, Leandro (eds.) (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana 1995).Google Scholar

32 For a perceptive contemporaneous view of the changes in the relations between sexes, see Ortiz, Scalabrini, Raúl, El hombre que está solo y espera (Buenos Aires: Hyspamerica, 1986. 1st edition 1931), pp. 55–56.Google Scholar

33 See for instance Girondo’, Oliverio Veinte poemas para ser leídos en el tranvía (Argenteuil France: H. Barthelemy, 1922).Google Scholar According to Romero works on sexology made up for 25 percent of all the books published by Claridad. El matrimonio perfecto by Van de Welde was published twice a year. Romero, , “Una empresa cultural,” p. 62.Google Scholar On eroticism in popular weekly novels, see Sarlo, , Beatriz, , El imperio de los sentimientos (Buenos Aires: Catálogos, 1985).Google Scholar See also Barrancos, , Dora, , La escena iluminada: ciencias para trabajadores, 1890–1930 (Buenos Aires: Plus Ultra, 1996).Google Scholar

34 Sarlo, , Beatriz, , La imaginación técnica. Sueños modernos de la cultura argentina (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Nueva Visión, 1992), p. 15.Google Scholar

35 Sarlo, , La Imaginación, 13.Google Scholar

36 Dreams had been a theme of interest for a long time independently from psychoanalysis. During the twenties, for instance, alongside of articles on scientific and psychological experiments, magazine El Hogar, published a number of articles on dreams. See for instance “Una teoría del ensueño,” El Hogar, 671 (August 25, 1922); “Los sueños” El Hogar 785 (October 31, 1924), and also short stories such as “El extraño caso de Carlos Funes” by Gómez, J. García, El Hogar 788 (November 21, 1924).Google Scholar

37 Baquero, Gómez de, Eduardo, , “Leyendo a Pérez de Ayala. Una novela y un problema” El Hogar, 707 (May 4, 1923);Google Scholar Cabrera, Rómulo, “Los precursores de Freud,” El Hogar, 709 (May 18, 1923);Google Scholar “El desarrollo de la psicología,” El Hogar, 815 (May 29,1925); “Dionisio fue un precursor del Dr. Freud” El Hogar 968 (May 4, 1928). The purpose of most of these articles was to deny (even if acknowledging the important of Freud's discovery) originality to the creator of psychoanalysis. There were also short stories which made references to “psychoanalysis” although sometimes in a totally inaccurate way. See, for instance, Pelayo, F., “Un chico que tenía futuro,” El Hogar, 1017, (April 12, 1929).Google Scholar For a totally negative vision of psychoanalysis, Ponce, Aníbal, , “Mme. Sokolnicka y el psicoanálisis francés” El Hogar, 1021 (May 10, 1929).Google Scholar After mid 1930s El Hogar started publishing articles and notes in which freudian concepts were used without making explicit references to them. See, for instance, Casal Castel, A., “El tema de la inquietud” (El Hogar, 1398 (July 31, 1936),Google Scholar or two articles by Crespo, Emilio Pizarro, a medical doctor from Rosario who wrote extensively on psychoanalysis: “Por que debe evitarse la violencia en los niños” El Hogar 1420 (January 1, 1937);Google Scholar and “Las razones de la elección amorosa” El Hogar 1461 (October 10, 1937). On Pizarro. Crespo, see Vezetti, , Aventuras de Freud, 149–162, and Plotkin, , “Freud, Politics.”Google Scholar

38 Crítica used a combination of state of the art technology and sensationalism that was very successful in attracting an enormous readership particularly among the lower and middle classes. See Sarlo, , La imaginación, p. 68.Google Scholar However, among its staff were some of the top writers of the country, including Roberto Arlt, Conrado Nalé Roxlo, Enrique and Raúl González Tuñón, and Jorge Luis Borges. For a short period of time (until 1930), young Enrique Pichon Rivière, future founding member of the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association worked there writing notes on sports and arts. See Lema, Zito, Vicente, , Conversaciones con Enrique Pichon Rivière sobre el arte y la locura (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Cinco, 1992), p. 127.Google Scholar Some internal details on the where-abouts of Crítica-Jornada can be found in Botana, Helvio, , Memorias tras los dientes del perro (Buenos Aires: Pena Lillo Editor, 1985).Google Scholar See also Talice, , Roberto, , 100.000 ejemplares por hora. Memorias de un redactor de Crítica, el diario de Botana (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Corregidor, 1977) ,Google Scholar and Llano, , Luis, Francisco, La aventura del periodismo (Buenos Aires: Peña Lillo Editor, 1978) , ch. 1.Google Scholar

39 For an excellent discussion of Crítica, see Saitta, , Sylvia, , Regueros de tinta. El diario Crítica en la década de 1920 (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1998).Google Scholar

40 For a short period of time during the 1920s Crítica hired Jorge Luis Borges and other members of the Martín Fierro group to run its cultural supplement. For the convergences of the newspaper and the literary avant-garde’s projects, see Saítta, , Regueros, pp. 160–164.Google Scholar

41 Crítica-Jornada for instance, followed in detail the evolution of sport aviation.

42 A typical note was, for instance, “Nació un cerdo fenómeno en Santiago del Estero” Jornada, August 21, 1931, 10. For a general discussion, see Sarlo, , La imaginación pp. 68–69. A similar interest can be found in other publications such as El Hogar.Google Scholar

43 During the early 30s Crítica had a section on graphology run by Federico Aberastury, future brother in law of Pichón Rivière, a fouding member of APA. Talice, , 100.000 ejemplares, 466.Google Scholar Aberastury introduced Pichon-Rivière to psychoanalysis. See Balán, , Jorge, , Cuéntame tu vida, una biografía colectiva del psicoanálisis argentino (Buenos Aires: Planeta, 1991).Google Scholar

44 “By creating this section on spiritism, Jornada’s purpose is to deviate the attention of the people from everything that could have any connection with ‘charlatanery’, easy to understand in people who do not know the seriousness of this kind of study.” Jornada, (February 18, 1932).

45 Freudiano’s section appeared on Thursdays during almost one year, although since January 1932 its size a frequency started to decline. This was typical of permanent sections in newspapers like Crítica-Jornada where there was a high turnout of sections in order to keep the interest of the public.

46 I want to express my appreciation here to one of the anonymous referees of The Americas for calling to my attention the possibility that the letters might have not been genuine.

47 Jornada, (August 20, 1931).

48 Jornada, (August 2, 1931).

49 Ibid.

50 In order to emphasize the scientific character of its approach to psychoanalysis, Jornada also published a long interview with famous French psychologist George Dumas—who was visiting Buenos Aires—on the importance of psychoanalysis. Jornada (August 25, 1931).

51 Ibid.

52 Jornada, (November 28, 1931).

53 Jornada, (January 16, 1932) and Jornada (February 18, 1932).

54 Jornada August 29, 1931. On infantile masturbation, Jornada, January 30, 1932. Freudiano advised a mother who consulted about the topic: “When you see a child occupied in “malas costumbres,” do not punish him, rather pretend that it is a normal custom, but one in which it is not convenient to indulge in abuse, because it is ugly.”

55 I assume that the pseudonyms chosen matched the actual gender of the reader. Since readers were directed to send their personal data, including sex (which was not published) in order to have their dreams analyzed, this is a fair assumption if the letters were authentic.

56 Aníbal Ponce was a well known psychologist, disciple of positivist psychiatrist, criminology and psychologist José Ingenieros. Ponce (like his mentor) rejected psychoanalysis in the name of biologicist psychology. See, for instance his articles “La divertida estética de Freud” Revista de Filosofía, IX; 27 (1923), 89–93; and “Madame Sokolnicka y el psicoanálisis francés” El Hogar, 1021 (May 10,1929) On Ponce’s relationship to psychoanalysis, see Vezzetti, , Aventuras de Freud, 163–169.Google Scholar

57 Jornada, (October 24,1931). Apparently a Cuban quack doctor had included Thénon’s name as co-author of one of his books. Jornada made clear that a serious psychoanalyst like Thénon could have no relation to quackery.

58 Jornada, (January 30, 1932).

59 Jornada, (September 19, 1931).

60 Jornada (August 20, 1931).

61 Published originally in New York by Viking in 1932.

62 Vezzetti, Aventuras de Freud, ch.4.

63 Plotkin, “Freud, Politics,” and Plotkin, “Freud en la Universidad.” On the Colegio Libre, see Neiburg, , Federico, , Los intelectuales y la invención del peronismo (Buenos Aires: Alianza, 198), chapter IV.Google Scholar

64 See Balán, Cuéntame tu vida.

65 Marechal, , Leopoldo, , Adán Buenosayres (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1981. 1st edition, 1948), pp. 697–699.Google Scholar

66 Photonovels consists mainly of still photographs with balloon captions. On photonovels in Latin America, see Flora, Butler, Cornelia, , “The Fotonovela in America” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, Volume 1 (1982), 15–25;Google Scholar Id. “The Political Economy of Fotonovela Production in Latin America” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, Volume 8 (1989), 215–230. On earlier sentimental weekly novels, see Sarlo, El imperio.

67 According to a study carried out in 1958, Idilio was the second most read popular magazine in Buenos Aires. See, “Nuevas fábricas de sueños,” Gaceta Literaria, III; 14 (July-August 1958), 1, 10–11.

68 Gradually, those tests included more and more psychoanalytically inspired languaje. See, for instance “Tiene Ud. Conflictos? Idilio, III: 91 (August 15, 1950), 39, which starts: “An unconscious conflict is, by definition, something that we are not aware of. However, it exists and it always find a way of manifesting itself.”

69 “La felicidad en el amor, el éxito en el trabajo, la alegría y el afecto en la familia y en la amistad, es decir el fracaso o el éxito en la vida dependen sobre todo de nosotros mismos, de nuestro carácter … El psicoanálisis nos brinda el camino para conocernos a nosotros mismos, para descubrir aquellos complejos que, ocultos en lo mas profundo de nuestra alma son la verdadera causa de nuestra infelicidad. En esta seccion queremos poner a su alcance, en la medida en que lo permita el medio empleado, la ayuda que el psicoanalisis puede proporcionarle para resolver sus problemas.” Idilio, 1 (October 26, 1948), 2.

70 Idilio, 3 (October 9, 1948), 2.

71 This avoidance of open discussion of sexual issues is consistent with the general characteristics of the “pink” photonovels of the time. Butler Flora, “The Fotonovela.”

72 “El simbolismo onírico de los zapatos es generalmente interpretado—casi por todas las escuelas psicológicas sin excepción—como de significación erótica. Su sueño viene a ser entonces una manifestación de su temor a 'perder' (no sentir) emociones eróticas en su vida futura. Ahora bien, el amor debe ser total, tanto físico como espiritual.” Idilio, 4 (November 3, 1948), 2.

73 Information on Germani can be found in Kahl, , Joseph, , Three Latin American Sociologists. Gino Germani, Pablo González Casanova, Fernando Henrique Cardoso (New Brunswick and Oxford: Transaction Books, 1987), pp. 23–74.,Google Scholar Germani's introductions to Fromm’s Miedo a la libertad, Mead’s, Espíritu, sociedad y persona, and Malinowski’s Estudio de psicología primitiva were reprinted in Germani, Estudios de psicología social (Mexico: Biblioteca de ensayos sociólogicos, Universidad Nacional de Mexico, n/d). Additional information can be found in Vezzetti, , Hugo, , “Las ciencias sociales y el campo de la salud mental en la década del sesenta” Punto de Vista, 54 (April, 1995), 29–33.Google Scholar

74 See for instance, Germani, , Gino, , “El psicoanálisis y las ciencias del hombre” Revista de la Universidad (La Plata), 3 (January-March, 1958), 61–67.Google Scholar

75 Priamo, , Luis, , “Los Sueños de Grete Stern,” in Stern, , Grete, , Sueños (Valencia: Institut Valencia d’Art Modern, 1995),Google Scholar and Nelson, Bazzano, Florencia, , “Dreamed Women: Grete Stern’s Photomontages” Paper presented in the VI Jornada de Teoría e Historia de las Artes. Centro Argentino de Investigaciones de Arte.Google Scholar

76 Telephone conversation with Cesare Civitá who now lives in New York, May 3, 1997.

77 In 1995, Boston-based film maker Juan Mandelbaum completed a documentary on both women titled “Ringl and Pit,” the name of the photographic studio they established in Germany.

78 Stern also made a portrait of Heimann. Telephone conversation with Silvia Coppola, Grete Stern’s daughter. February 27, 1997.

79 Stern’s works also illustrated Sur’s early issues, and an exhibit of her works was reviewed in the journal. See Brest, Romero, Jorge, , “Fotografías de Horacio Coppola y Grete Stern,” Sur 5; 13 (October, 1935), 91–102.Google Scholar

80 On Pichon Rivière’s relationship with surrealism, see Vezzetti, Aventuras, ch.5. See also Pichon, , Rivière, , Enrique, , Psicoanálisis del Conde de Lautrèamont. Compilación y prólogo de Marcelo Pichon-Rivière (Buenos Aires: Argonauta, 1992) and Lema, Zito, Conversaciones.Google Scholar Other members of the psychoanalytic community to whom Stern became a friend of included Dr. Marie Langer, and Dr. Arnaldo Rascovsky. Stern's own house was built by Architect Vladimiro Acosta, the husband of Dr. Telma Reca, a renowed child psychiatrist who was also close to the emerging psychoanalytic community of Buenos Aires. Telephone conversation with Silvia Coppola.

81 Balán, Cuéntame tu vida.

82 For a discussion of the climate of ideas of that period, see Terán, , Oscar, , “Rasgos de la cultura argentina en la década de 1950” in Terán, , En busca de la ideología argentina (Buenos Aires: Catálogos Editora, 1986), pp. 195–253.Google Scholar

83 Perazzo, , Nelly, , El arte concreto en la Argentina en la década del 40 (Buenos Aires: Ediciones de Arte Gaglianone, 1983), 60.Google Scholar The other members of APA who attended the exhibit were Dr. Arnaldo Rascovsky, Dr. Marie Langer, and Arminda Aberastury, Pichón Rivière’s wife and first translator of Melanie Klein’s works in Spanish.

84 Kosice, , Gyula, , Arte Madí (Buenos Aires: Ediciones de Arte Gaglianone, 1982), p. 24.Google Scholar

85 After 1950 the Peronist government had control of almost all the media in Argentina (with the exception of a few newspapers and magazines). The official press (published by Haynes, a government sponsored media emporium controlled by governor of the province of Buenos Aires Carlos Aloé), was loaded with highly propagandistic material. See Sirven, , Pablo, , Perón y los medios de comunicación (1943–1955) (Buenos Aires: CEAL, 1984),Google Scholar and Plotkin, , Mariano, , Mañana es San Perón. Propaganda, rituales políticos y educación en el régimen peronista (1946–1955) (Buenos Aires: Ariel, 1994),Google Scholar Appendix I.

86 See for instance Saz, Eduardo del, “Divagaciones sobre la psicoanálisis,” Caras y Caretas XLII, 2139 (October 7, 1939), pp. 26–27.Google Scholar

87 Caras y Caretas LIII, 2142 (December, 1951). Székely was an Hungarian psychologist who introduced Roscharch testing in Argentina. Angel Garma was a Spanish psychoanalyst who emigrated to Argentina in 1938 after receiving psychoanalytic training in Germany under Theodore Reik. He was the organizer and first president of the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association.

88 Caras y Caretas LIII, 2142 (December 1951), p. 36.

89 Ibid.

90 Ibid.

91 Caras y Caretas LIV, 2143 (January, 1952), p. 38

92 Caras y Caretas LIV, 2149 (July 1952).

93 Caras y Caretas LIV, 2144 (February 1952), p. 40.

94 Dr.Gomez Nerea, J. (Alberto Hidalgo), Freud y el misterio de los sueños, Vol. 7 of the collection Freud al alcance de todos (Buenos Aires: Tor, 1935), pp. 153–157.Google Scholar

95 Out of 60 consultations to Mathieu in which the psudonyms of the readers were included, 24 were by male and 26 by female readers. I could not determine the sex of the remaining 10 (readers used pseudonyms). Again, as in Jornada, we do not know if the letters were genuine.

96 “Es Usted un ‘coleccionista’ de injusticias?” Caras y Caretas, LI, 2143, (January, 1952), pp. 23–24.Google Scholar

97 “Tiene Ud. un ‘candidato’? Estudie sus gestos, sus errores, sus posturas! De como esas pequeñeces traicionarán su verdadero ‘yo,’ “Caras y Caretas, LIV, 2150, (August, 1952).