Enrique Pichon-Rivière, An Argentine Psychoanalyst

Enrique Pichon-Rivière is one of the most important Argentine psychoanalysts. In fact, he is considered one of the pioneers of group psychoanalysis, not only in Argentina, but throughout Latin America. However, he was not an orthodox supporter of the discipline. His contribution was based on his own knowledge and experience.

After his extensive clinical experience, Enrique Pichon-Rivière decided to focus on social psychology. In one of his most important works, El Proceso Grupal: del Psicoanálisis a la Psicología Social (The group process : from psychoanalysis to social psychology ), he defined social psychology as the democratization of psychoanalysis. He made major contributions to the field of group psychology. His perspective united dialectics, homeostasis and cybernetics.

He was also a critic of psychiatric practice. In fact, he believed that it was strongly influenced by power relations rather than therapeutic goals. Furthermore, instead of facilitating the patient’s recovery, it actually helped to prolong mental disorders.

Enrique Pichon-Rivière and his confusing childhood

Enrique Pichon-Rivière was born in Geneva, Switzerland. His father was English and his mother was French. He was the only child in his father’s second marriage. However, he did not know about this until he was about six years old. Apparently it had a big impact on him.

His parents had progressive ideas. Despite being reasonably wealthy, they were socialists. In addition, they promoted justice and equality and rejected racism.

They suddenly moved from Europe to Argentina. Pichon-Rivière always claimed that he never knew why.

The future psychiatrist and psychoanalyst arrived in Argentina at the age of three. The family lived briefly in Buenos Aires before moving to the province of Santa Fé, in the area known as Chaco Santafesino. Then they moved to the province of Corriente. In this area there were many guaraní people. In fact , Pichon-Rivière often mentioned that he learned to speak Guaraní before Spanish.

A future psychiatrist

Pichon-Rivière’s first encounter with Freud’s work took place during his youth studies, at the school in Goya. It had a profound effect on him since he had also been strongly influenced by the magical ideas of the Guaraní people and at the same time by what he called “the great family secret” (his parents).

He became one of the founders of the socialist party in Goya. He later decided to study medicine and moved to the city of Rosario. There he adopted a rather bohemian lifestyle and got a job as a “behavioral instructor” for Polish prostitutes.

His rather chaotic lifestyle led to pneumonia. He returned to Goya and then moved to Buenos Aires where he graduated as a physician in 1936.

In Buenos Aires, he befriended some of the great intellectuals of the day, including the famous writer Roberto Arlt. He was also passionate about poetry and literature. In fact, he ended up writing art and sports articles for the newspaper La Crítica.

His psychiatric practice

Pichon-Rivière also trained as an anthropologist and psychiatrist. First, he worked at Torres Asylum for the mentally handicapped with mental illness. He then became a psychiatrist at the Hospice of Mercy. He worked there for 15 years. During his time there, he discovered the ideas that he later developed into his theories. The first thing he noticed was the abuse that the nurses showed towards the patients.

He then set up working groups with nurses. During these classes, he instructed them on the basics of psychiatry to get them to treat patients better. This was a big change.

But a little later the nurses went on strike. This lasted for several months. For this reason, Pichon-Rivière was forced to teach some patients to replace them.

The results were surprising. In fact, the condition of the patients who were given the responsibility to perform the nursing tasks was rapidly improved. It seems that being busy, feeling useful and interacting with the hospital in a different way significantly improved their health. For this reason, Pichon-Rivière began to emphasize the value of the social factor in mental disorders.

After a brilliant career and several published works, Pichon-Rivière founded a private school of social psychology and published his theory of operative groups. He died in Buenos Aires on July 16, 1977, at the age of 70.