Freud and Latin America

17 Jan-14 Jul 2024

Overview

Psychoanalysis has often been considered a Eurocentric practice, with its origins in Freud’s former home of Vienna, Austria and its earliest schools formed in European centres such as Berlin, Budapest, London and Paris. But in the 21st-century, Latin America is home to some of the most important psychoanalytic centres in the world. Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, has the highest number of psychoanalysts per capita in the world. Why has this region embraced psychoanalysis so warmly? And how has Freudian theory influenced wider culture and society?

Through personal letters, photographs, sculptures, books and marginalia, Freud and Latin America will investigate the roots of psychoanalysis in the region, namely Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru. It will uncover fascinating links between Freud’s life and Latin America. It will also profile some integral early figures for the dissemination of psychoanalysis, who are otherwise unknown in Europe, such as Peruvian philosopher, Honorio Delgado and Brazilian psychiatrist, Gastão Pereira da Silva.