Mexico (International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis)

During the XX International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) Congress in Paris in 1957, the Asociación psicoanalítica mexicana (APM; Mexican Psychoanalytic Association) became the first official Mexican affiliate of the IPA. Since that time, the Mexican Psychoanalytic Association has played a substantial role in the IPA: three IPA vice presidents have been from the Mexican Psychoanalytic Association, as have several members serving on nominating committees and on sponsoring committees within the IPA. The Mexican association has also had three members serve as president of the Federación psicoanalítica de América latina (FePAL; Psychoanalytic Federation of Latin America).

In the past, inadequate local training conditions in Mexico had sent many psychiatrists to Argentina, and also to the United States and France, countries that benefited when analysts fleeing from the Nazis enriched existing psychoanalytic training programs. The return of these now-trained analysts to Mexico produced transitory tensions with psychiatrists who had remained in Mexico. Their circumstantial encounter with Erich Fromm, who had come to Mexico only for his wife's health, diminished tension, as he helped to fulfill their needs for training, founding the Mexican Institute of Psychoanalysis.

The founding group of the Mexican Psychoanalytic Association included Santiago Ramirez, Ramón Parres, José Remus, Avelino González, José Luis González, and Rafael Barajas all of whom were training analysts. Victor Aíza, Fernando Cesarman, Luis Féder, Estela Galván Remus, and Francisco González Pineda were initially included as candidates, were later incorporated into the founding group of members. Carlos Corona and Alfredo Namnun eventually joined the Association. Santiago Ramirez and Parres pioneered psychoanalytical training in México City; Rafael Barajas in Monterrey. Successive generations and study groups included other important researchers in theoretical and applied fields.

Initially all doors and roads seemed closed. Though the Hospital General was blocked as a project for psychiatric training, eventually the Hospital Central Militar, Hospital Infantil, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Psychology faculty, and the Instituto Nacional de Pediatria, among others, opened their institutions to psychoanalytic training. After one year, the Mexican Psychoanalytic Association's influence spread to other medical and psychological spheres and to all disciplines, covering most socioeconomic and cultural levels within Mexico. The flow of patients with careers in the arts and sciences was remarkable. Mexican authors produced close to 3,000 articles in the Mexican Psychoanalytic Association's Cuadernos de Psicoanalisis (begun in 1965), in books, and in other national and international psychoanalytical journals.

The unexpectedly high demand for treatment oversaturated the available capacity, spawning large populations of self-appointed psychoanalysts and psychotherapists. From 37 groups studied that called themselves psychoanalytic, few had earned the name, a consequence of the continuing lack of international, regional or even national regulation of psychoanalysis as a career and title.

An anti-establishment psychoanalytic left "Plataforma" emerged during the turbulent mid-1960s. The Viennese-Argentine Marie Langer led a fight from Mexico, which spread throughout Latin America, against "ultra-rightist" Institutes. But the Plataforma soon disappeared. Some present Lacanian psychoanalysts are former plataforma members.

"L'Asociacion Regiomontana de Psicoanalisis", (ARPAC), is another psychoanalytic society, equivalent to the Mexican Psychoanalytic Association. It was founded in 1979 to serve the northern part of the country by a group of Monterrey Mexican Psychoanalytic Association members, including Diego Rodriguez, Roger Garcia, Alfonso Moreno Robles, Ruben Hinojosa and Ruben Tames. The founding members were later joined by Ricardo Diaz Conti, Cesar Garza and Hernan Solis. In 1993, the IPA recognized ARPAC as an independent affiliate.

As of 2005, the Association had 130 members and 22 candidates. Mexico City also suffers a consumer's crisis; patients who once averaged 3 to 4 visits a week only average 2 sessions as of the early 2000s. Peripheral groups are developing including Jungians, local and foreign Lacanians. The Mexican Psychoanalytic Association began to provide distance education and new projects for fellowships for each state were being considered. Josefina Mendoza was president of the Mexican Psychoanalytic Association in 2005. The Institute of the Asociación Psicoanalitica Mexicana has had over 20 graduating classes. Its post-graduate programs include training analysis and child psychoanalysis. Its post-graduate center also trains psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapists. The Mexican Psychoanalytic Association has a full extension program and participates in applied psychoanalytic activities along with study groups, research, publishing, and two yearly congresses (one open, one closed).

The Association inspired and developed groups all over the country. Some of the groups in Mexico City include AMPAGnalytic Group Therapy Association (founded by L. Feder, J. L. Gonzalez, G. Quevedo, F. Zmudt. Graduates: first generation, A. Palacios, H. Prado); IMPPA (Armando Barriguete); and Asociacion Mexicana de Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, founded by Santiago Ramirez, Dolores Sandoval, and others. In Guadalajara, there are two groups: GGPP (Varela and Gramajo) and APJ (Torres and Manuel Fernandez V.). There are nearly 10 other groups in other parts of Mexico. There are individuals practicing in Yucatan, Chiapas, Guadalajara, Cuernavaca, Aguascalientes, and Vera Cruz. Specialized psychoanalytic institutions and hospital services include IFAC (Family Therapy Institute), which provides family therapy, merging psychoanalytical and Frommian orientations; CPPO, bringing distinguished lecturers; and IMANTI, which provides special education.

Some of the contributions to psychoanalytical thought include the following: psychology of the Mexican (Santiago Ramirez); aggression and destructivity of the Mexican (González Pineda); studies on transference-countertransference (José Remus, Luis Féder); mammoth group psychotherapy (José Luis González); separation anxiety (Avelino González); child analysis (Victor Aiza, M. I. López; M. Salles, child psychiatry); ecocide and non-human objects relations (Fernando Cesarman); and the "unwanted child" developed into preconceptology theory and psychogenoma project (L. Féder team of J. Islas, R. Balderas, S. Weinstein). Significant training contributions have been made by Eduardo Dallal, M. A. Dupont, Jaime Ayala and José Camacho. Recent awards suggest that Mexico's creative and pioneering fervor continues into the twenty-first century.

LUIS FER