The diffusion of psychoanalysis in Argentina produced an impressive ‘trail’ of forms of socially engaged practice. Buenos Aires has been at the centre of these developments throughout the twentieth century. Key figures such as Marie Langer and José Bleger had a long-standing relationship to Marxism and the Left, and found new ways to join psychoanalysis with political commitment. Argentinian psychoanalysts responded to turbulent times of social and political repression by developing on orientation that integrated object relations theories with Lacanian ideas and with radical social theory. Several collectives of psychoanalysts directed themselves to the poor and working-class communities of Buenos Aires, who were and are still facing police and military repression. Some analysts were forced to go into exile, as a result of their activism and have continued working across other Latin American regions. These radical marks have been imprinted in important ways on contemporary collectives and practices, noticeably in the rich and potent open feminist clinics in contemporary Argentina.
