Psicanálise, Guerra Fria e Histórias em Quadrinhos

O caso da revista "Psychoanalysis" nos Estados Unidos dos anos 1950

Abstract

This paper promotes, firstly, a debate on the dissemination of psychoanalysis in mid-20th-century American popular culture media. Secondly, it explores how psychoanalysis influences and is influenced by the cultural environments it circulates in. It looks specifically into the four issues of American comic book Psychoanalysis, published in 1955, which tells the story of a psychiatrist who, like a detective, unravels his patients’ greatest unconscious mysteries. This magazine emerged at a time when the familial dynamic was in the spotlight in the United States. Furthermore, a certain ode to family values and romantic love had become commonplace in the country's mass media in an effort to uplift the American way of life and strengthen the capitalist ideals of consumption. This work demonstrates how psychoanalytic ideas were used as tools in Psychoanalysis to uphold the values of conformism and docility stemming from the context of McCarthyism and the Cold War. This paper sheds light on the appropriation of psychoanalysis by, not the usual agents, but rather figures in diverse social and cultural spheres, highlighting the role of those in the arts and politics, among others.