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The early days of psychoanalysis in Uruguay date back to the 1940s when Valentín Pérez Pastorini, a psychiatrist, began traveling to Buenos Aires to be analyzed by Pichon-Rivière. Pérez Pastorini trained with the Argentinean Psychoanalytic Association. Miguel Sesser then followed his example. Pérez Pastorini analyzed Roberto Agorio and Gilberto Koolhaas, and the group grew to include Jean Carlos Rey, Héctor Garbarino, Juan Pereira Anavitarte and professors Laura Achard, Marta Lacava, and Mercedes Freire de Garbarino. In 1950 it was proposed to form an institute, a project that required the presence of a training analyst.

In 1954 Willy and Madeleine Baranger, French teachers who were members of the Argentinean Psychoanalytic Association, set up in the country and began to work as training analysts. Argentinean analysts traveled each week for supervisions. The group began to take shape, and from 1955 to 1956 it established bylaws and acquired legal status. It was recognized as a study group at the Twentieth Congress of the International Psychoanalytical Association in Paris in 1957 and was admitted as an affiliate association of the International Psychoanalytical Association at the twenty-second congress, held in Edinburgh in 1961.

This expansion of psychoanalysis initially met with opposition from a group of physicians who accused the psychoanalysts of illegally practicing medicine. The Sindicato médico del Uruguay (Medical Association of Uruguay) finally ruled on the question in favor of the group of analysts. Psychoanalysis then experienced a period of rapid growth. It was taught at the graduate level as part of medical and psychiatric studies, as well as in bachelor courses in psychology in the faculty of arts and human sciences. Luis E. Prego Silva introduced psychoanalytic knowledge into pediatric departments in hospitals. In 1965 the Barangers returned to Buenos Aires after a ten-year stay in Montevideo, but by this time the Uruguay Psychoanalytic Association already had three training analysts: Héctor Garbarino, Laura Achard, and Mercedes Freire de Garbarino. In 1966 the Twelfth Congress of Latin American Psychoanalysis was held in Montevideo.

The psychoanalytic movement went into a noticeably slow period during the "de facto government" from 1973 to 1985, the period of military dictatorship that forced eminent analysts to emigrate, imposed rigorous controls on meetings of the Uruguay Psychoanalytic Association, restricted the appointment of its directors, and monitored publications. All the ground that had been gained at the level of universities, hospitals, and public health was lost. In 1985, with the advent of democracy, the Uruguay Psychoanalytic Association nevertheless rapidly made up for lost time.

Among the founding members of psychoanalysis in Uruguay the following stand out for their contributions to the field in terms of theory and practice: Rodolfo Agorio, Gilberto Koolhaas, Héctor Gabarino, Mercedes Freire de Gabarino, Laura Achard, Juan Carlos Rey, and Willy and Madeleine Baranger. Also worthy of note for their contributions are Luis E. Prego Silva, Vida Maberino de Prego, Marta Nieto, Carlos Mendilaharsu, Sélika Acevedo de Mendilaharsu, Gloria Mieres de Pizzolanti, Isabel Plosa, Alberto Pereda, Myrta Casas de Peredo, Ricardo Bernardi, Marcelo Viñar, Maren Ulriksen de Viñar, Fanny Schkolnik, and Marcos Lijtenstein.

The Uruguay Psychoanalytic Association is the only organization in the country that is a member of the International Psychoanalytical Association. It is also affiliated with the Latin American Psychoanalytic Federation. There have been no splits in the organization. The Executive Committee is elected every two years at a general assembly. The Training Commission is in charge of the study program. The Scientific Commission coordinates activities within and outside the association and organizes meetings, roundtables, and domestic and international conferences. The title "training analyst" has been replaced by "analyst in didactic function," a title that includes training, supervision, and teaching. Admission is by interview, since one of the criteria governing training is that personal analysis cannot be formally associated with the association in any way. To apply, candidates must have completed three and a half years of personal analysis. Supervised practice consists of three analyses of two years each, two of adults and one of a child. Various laboratories operate under the aegis of the Uruguay Psychoanalytic Association: laboratories that study children, adolescents, psychosis, couples and families, as well as laboratories that take research and group psychoanalytic approaches. The Centro de intercambio (Exchange Center) is responsible for spreading psychoanalysis to neighboring domains of knowledge and culture. It also provides psychoanalytic treatment for low-income patients. The Publications Commission, in addition to publishing books, has published the Revista uruguaya de psicoanálisis since 1956 and the journal Temas since 1983.

In July 2003 the president of the republic and the minister of education and culture approved the reform of the bylaws of the Uruguay Psychoanalytic Association and the foundation of the University Postgraduate Institute of Psychoanalysis under the auspices of the association. From then on, training by the association led to a university-level master's degree in psychoanalysis. In the same year a commission was set up whose goal it was to have the Uruguay Psychoanalytic Association recognized by the Graduate School of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of the Republic as an institution entitled to organize adult training programs.

SÉLIKA ACEVEDO DE MENDILAHARSU