Recognizing oneself at the origin, moving across time

psychoanalysis and collective practices

Abstract

Since the beginning of Freud’s textual productions about his clinical journey, we perceive his restlessness regarding what he heard and studied, showing himself attentive, restless, and creative. At the beginning of this article, I take a brief journey through the history of the creation of psychoanalysis, aiming to rediscover the marks left in this trail of restlessness in our current practice. It is evident that psychoanalysis was created in a context and culture different from what we experience today, especially in Brazil, so it is not possible to simply transplant it. Considering the critical economic, social, and racial situation we experience in Brazil today, how can we sustain the psychoanalytic method without reproducing an individualizing logic of suffering or without it operating as a cover for the neoliberal meritocratic discourse and, consequently, for aporophobic and racist attitudes? How can psychoanalysis expand into other territories without moving away from its foundations and becoming a political militancy? These concerns, mainly triggered by my participation in psychoanalytic collectives, have pointed in the direction of the effects of collective work as a potential for social transformation and for psychoanalysis itself. Drawing from Freud, Laplanche, Danto, and a few others, I traverse the history and significance of free clinics, their differences from private practice, and consequently, reflect on the position and desire of the analyst. As a possible path proposed for the above questions, I support my argumentation through the notions of civic dissidence and ethical obligation from Frèdèric Gros, as well as the ethical perspective of thought and the notion of active micropolitics from Suely Rolnik.