Paradoxical Ideologies: An Intersectional View of Argentine Psychoanalytic Discourses on Gender and Sexuality (2005–2012)

Abstract

This article studies the Argentine psychoanalytic discourses surrounding the passing of the laws of marriage equality and gender identity between 2005 and 2012. During those years, psychoanalysts shared their expertise on LGBTQIA + issues in journals, newspapers, television and radio programmes, and at the National Congress. Their favourable opinions influenced several legislators and led to them voting in favour of the laws. In this article, I argue that these psychoanalytic discourses enabled paradoxical ideologies. While psychoanalytic concepts provided arguments in favour of passing the laws, they also paradoxically reinforced heteronormative, racist, classist, and urbanised views on gender and sexuality. Drawing from an intersectional perspective and from post-structuralist, feminist, and queer critiques to psychoanalysis, the article examines how these paradoxical ideologies emerge in newspaper articles and in journals and books published by psychoanalytic associations and aiming at a general audience.