The teacher as a translator and as an elastic being: an experience on the transmission of psychoanalysis at the university

Abstract

Transmitting psychoanalysis in universities has been under discussion since its inception. Education and psychoanalysis meet in the classic Freudian axiom: educating, governing and psychoanalyzing are impossible professions. Therefore, this article aims to reflect on the teacher’s attitude in the classroom, when teaching psychoanalysis at the university, based on an experience report from a teaching intern. The subject in which the internship was carried out is entitled: “Constitution of the Psychic Subject”, and belongs to the psychology degree in a university in southern Brazil. The methodology of the article is a narrative experience report based on psychoanalytic investigation in the form of an essay. The convergence between experience, praxis and theory weaves this essay. To this end, two possible positions of the professor in relation to the transmission of psychoanalysis at the university are portrayed. Initially, the metaphor of the teacher as a translator is discussed, with the help of Walter Benjamin and Jacques Derrida. Subsequently, in the second part of the discussion, the teacher is thought for being elastic, for this purpose, using the principal authors Paulo Freire and Sándor Ferenczi as support. These stances emerged as a reflection of the teaching internship experience and show the construction of possible paths for the transmission of psychoanalysis at the university in the contemporary context. The convergence between experience, praxis and theory weaves this essay.