Discussion of the Paper “Psychoanalysis and Tango: Complex Arts of Grief Therapy” by Dawn Farber

Abstract

ABSTRACT This discussion focuses on one aspect of Farber’s work: the birth of the tango (this issue). The tango was created as a fusion of African and European immigrant culture in Argentina between the second half of the nineteenth century and the first twenty years of the twentieth century. The tango was one of the tools used by immigrants to socialize the pain of the loss of common roots, the lack of identity, and the sense of loneliness. The author reflects on the overlaps between tango and relational psychoanalysis, and muses on the impact of the loss of hugs and embraces in this worldwide pandemic caused by Covid and the collective trauma that it entails.