Sociabilities, networks and the circulation of knowledges in the creation of a "psy scope" in Argentina during the inter-war period (Santa Fe, 1919-1943)

Abstract

This article presents the findings of a research study on the construction of a psy scientific field in Argentina during the inter-war period, with a focus on subnational spaces. After 1920, the mental hygiene movement, in its different disciplinary manifestations, became notable in the public sphere, in university education and - belatedly - in healthcare policies, in an expansion that led to the creation of an autonomous field with its own logic. I argue that the creation of this "psy field" - while it was as yet inexistent - was largely due to the strength of sociability networks that facilitated the management of resources and institutional spaces of power, making it possible for the field to become independent and established.