Notes on a cartography tracing the trajectory of psychoanalysis in Cuba since 1959 (I): The haunted ghost

Abstract

This work intends to highlight several points for a study of the circulation, reception, imagining, praxis, and institutionalization of psychoanalysis in post-1959 Cuba. Rather than focusing on traditional historiographical logic, it aims to weave together contextual, social, economic, and political elements that could relate to the way in which this system of ideas was perceived, assimilated, and at the same time, relatively marginalized in this Caribbean land. We seek several points of comparison with other Latin American countries and lay the groundwork for an in-depth study. Works on this subject in Latin America are taken as a reference point, specifically in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. This work distinguishes itself by emphasizing the imaginary relationship, social praxis, and institutionalization, to attempt to understand the difficulties of the insertion of psychoanalysis on the island. This first installment runs until approximately 1980, while the second continues the trajectory from the 1980s to the mid-2000s, a period of relative rebirth in psychoanalysis.