The desiring woman: Psychoanalytic discourses of abortion in Argentine feminism (2005–2020)

In Argentina, psychoanalysis has historically served progressive causes. Attuned to this tradition, in 2020, feminist psychoanalysts were vital to the passing of a federal law enhancing access to abortion. My article examines this recent case via intersectionality theory and claims that psychoanalytic discourses played a paradoxical role: They created combined categories of difference, such as “the desiring woman,” that contributed both to social justice and to marginalization. This case study furthers our understanding of the paradoxes of psychoanalysis in public life as well as challenges intersectionality’s assumption that combined categories necessarily result in interlocking oppression.