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Psychosocial Histories of Brazilian Psychoanalysis

This project investigates the development and nature of psychoanalysis in Brazil, focusing especially on the period of the Brazilian dictatorship from the 1960s to the 1980s.

  • Funder: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (2015-17).

  • PEOPLE INVOLVED

    • Professor Stephen Frosh, ÌÇÐÄlogoÈë¿Ú, University of London, London, UK
    • Belinda Mandelbaum, University of São Paulo

  • RESEARCH AIMS

    • To map the development of Brazilian psychoanalysis with a view to expanding understanding of its specific features and, more generally, of the relationship between colonialism and psychoanalysis.
    • To examine the relationship between psychoanalysis and authoritarian regimes in the specific context of Brazil.

  • METHODOLOGY

    • Historical and archival research.
    • Interviews with Brazilian psychoanalysts.

  • INDICATIVE PUBLICATIONS

    • Mandelbaum, B., Frosh, S. and Lima, R. (2021) Brazilian Psychosocial Histories of Psychoanalysis. London: Palgrave.
    • Mandelbaum, B. and Frosh, S. (2020) Pellegrino, H. (1983) Oedipal Pact and Social Pact: From the Grammar of Desire to Brazilian Shamelessness. Psychoanalysis and History, 22, 279-290.
    • Mandelbaum, B. and Frosh, S. (2020) O 'bandeirante destemido' Durval Marcondes, a Psicanálise e a modernização conservadora no Brasil. Revista USP São Paulo, 126, 85-98.
    • Frosh, S. and Mandelbaum, B. (2019) Psychosocial Histories of Psychoanalysis. Revista Praxis y Culturas PsiSantiago de Chile, enero 2019, Nº 1, 1-13.
    • Mandelbaum, B., Frosh, S., Rubin, A. and Theodoro, A.R. (2019) Antropofagia e Autoritarismo na Psicanálise Brasileira. Calibán Revista Latino-Americana de Psicanálise 17, 112-125.
    • Mandelbaum, B., Rubin, A. and Frosh, S. (2018) 'He didn't even know there was a dictatorship': The complicity of a psychoanalyst with the Brazilian military regime. Psychoanalysis and History, 20, 37–57.
    • Frosh, S. and Mandelbaum, B. (2017) 'Like kings in their kingdoms': Conservatism in Brazilian Psychoanalysis during the Dictatorship. Political Psychology, 38, 591-604.
    • Rubin, A., Mandelbaum, B. and Frosh, S. (2016) 'No memory, no desire': Psychoanalysis in Brazil during Repressive Times. Psychoanalysis and History, 18, 93-118.