The Intimacy of Cold War Power: Psychoanalysis and Barrack Life in Argentina

• In Event: Histories of Psychiatry in Latin America: New Trends

Abstract

The Cold War in Latin America is often framed as a struggle between polarizing ideological positions: Left vs Right, Authoritarianism vs Communism, etc. In these analyses, such extremist binaries are the ground from which the violence and intensity of the Cold War can be explained. This paper, instead, treats these dichotomies, not as a given, but rather as historically shifting categories in need of explanation. The persistence of bipolar models of the Cold War, I argue, are symptoms of the Cold War itself, categories constituted through a range of cultural practices that can be interrogated and historically situated.
Rather than turning to military generals, politicians, or guerrilla fighters, this paper examines the constitution of these categories within the intimacy of everyday life in military barracks in Argentina in the late 1970s. Specifically, I explore court cases that prosecuted soldiers for delitos contra el honor militar. Under dictatorial rule, hundreds of soldiers were prosecuted for “dishonest acts with persons of the same sex.” These court cases represented a set of dilemmas central to military rule, including whether Argentines could be rehabilitated to the new political reality and how the “good citizen” behaves with respect to family, friendship, and sexuality. Psychoanalysts served as expert testimony in these cases and connected the intimacy of barrack life – from sharing mate to playing sports – to larger themes concerning citizenship and subversion. I conclude that understanding Cold War subjectivity involves a serious engagement with intimacy, domesticity, and the private sphere as sites central to military power.

Author

• Marco A Ramos, Yale University