Historical reconstruction of Latin American psychosomatic medicine: the exchange between psychoanalysts from Argentina and Brazil, 1942-1959

This article reconstructs the origins of psychosomatic medicine in Latin America through the history of the institutionalization of psychoanalysis in Argentina and Brazil. The study focuses on the exchange between Argentine and Brazilian psychoanalysts from 1942 to 1959. The analyses indicate similarities and differences between the two projects of dissemination and theoretical production of psychosomatic medicine in both countries. The conclusions indicate that the Argentine group of psychoanalysts had the intention of strengthening psychoanalysis while, in Brazil, the main disseminator of psychosomatics, Danilo Perestrello, supported a profound transformation of traditional medicine.