Abstract

DAGFAL, Alejandro. Professional Identity as a Problem: the Case of the "Psychologist-Psychoanalyst" in Argentina (1959-1966). Psicol. pesq. [online]. 2014, vol.8, n.1, pp. 97-114. ISSN 1982-1247.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5327/Z1982-1247201400010010.

In Argentina, the creation of psychology programs, at the end of the 1950s, was followed by the invention of a new professional role: that of the "psychologist with psychoanalytic orientation". Nevertheless, its competences in the clinical area were not legally recognized and they were kept with zeal by the most conservative psychiatrists and psychoanalysts. At the same time, the program founders, scientifically oriented, did not expect psychologists to get into psychotherapeutic practice. Thus, the professional identity of the first psychologists was gradually built in a reactive manner, opposing the restrictions implied by the auxiliary role that was proposed to them both in the medical field, and in the psychology programs themselves. On the other hand, the most progressive psychiatrists and psychoanalysts acted as a "positive" model of identification, which somewhat allowed for the construction of a professional identity in the clinical field. This paper deals with this process from a historical point of view.

Keywords : History of psychology; professional identity; psychoanalysis; Argentina.

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