The Mexican social unconscious—part I: The roots of a nation

Abstract

The social unconscious of a country or people is shaped by their origins and by the major collective traumatic experiences of their past. In the case of Mexico, this has been the trauma of the Spanish Conquest, that aimed to subjugate its originary peoples and obliterate their whole culture, language, and religion, which nonetheless subsisted subterraneously, syncretized with those of their invaders. It was a veritable genocide, both physical and cultural. The Mexican population was born from the mating of a brutal foreign conqueror and a subjected native woman, resulting in mestization, both physical and cultural. The psychic and social aftermath of these origins has been a deep ambivalence of Mexicans towards their identity and the foreign invader. This is similar to the fate of the unwelcome and abused child described by Ferenczi. Such underlying factors, derived from the collective history of peoples should be taken into account in any psychoanalytic or group-analytic enquiry of individual patients and groups.

The Mexican social unconscious: ‘Confusion of tongues’ in tripartite matrices of colonized countries. Response to ‘The Mexican social unconscious—Part I: The roots of a nation’ and ‘Part II: Politics and group analysis’ by Reyna Hernández de Tubert

“…The Mexican social unconscious—part I: The roots of a nation (2021) outlines the historical roots of Mexico, introducing the wealth of the Nahuas indigenous culture—the Aztecs, who called themselves ‘Mexicas’, were only one of the several tribes that settled in the central valley of Mexico (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahuas) —in contrast to the brutality of the Spanish colonial conquest, which destroyed the traditions, the culture and the religion of the Nahuas after genocidal killings. Hernández de Tubert poignantly describes centuries of sociocultural trauma in Mexico, where cumulative experiences of failed dependency at the personal, family, institutional, and societal levels show to these days the deleterious effects of traumatic experience in the unconscious life of Mexican people (Hopper, 2003b).…”

“…In Mexico, a creative, although ambivalent solution, was given to the problem, allowing Mexicans to visit the pyramid through an underground tunnel and to pray in the Sanctuary at the same time. For Hernández de Tubert, this solution is a ‘pregnant symbol of the social unconscious’ where ‘the manifest and the repressed aspects of the culture took the form of a syncretistic fusion of two world views’ (Hernández de Tubert, 2021).…”

“…Indeed, to forge a new and hybrid foundation matrix (both Spanish and indigenous), processes of mestization—‘the process or state of race mixture, which comes from mestizo , the Spanish term for a half-breed’ (Hernández de Tubert, 2021)—became an important socially unconscious feature in the social unconscious of the Mexican people. In fact, the hybridization of costumes, culture and religion is peculiar to Latin American matrices (Tubert-Oklander, 2011), which, similarly to the Mexican one, are today a meeting and a fusion of races and different traditions.…”

“…In fact, the hybridization of costumes, culture and religion is peculiar to Latin American matrices (Tubert-Oklander, 2011), which, similarly to the Mexican one, are today a meeting and a fusion of races and different traditions. However, in Mexico, since the colonization period, the creation of a myth of mestization has allowed for the transformation of the idea of mestization, ‘from a derogatory condition to an ideology, a source of pride and ultimately a myth’ coming from ‘a fusion of two great races and cultures, as a result of what has been called the “encounter of two worlds” and that we are beneficiary of a dual rich inheritance’ (Hernández de Tubert, 2021). Interestingly, the role of a ‘third root’ (Hernández de Tubert, 2021) composed of African slaves in the interbreeding of races in Mexico was denied in the composition of the myth of mestization .…”

Response to ‘The Mexican social unconscious—Part I: The roots of a nation’ and ‘Part II: Politics and group analysis’ by Reyna Hernández-Tubert

“…It is a novelty in the journal of group analysis to read two large accounts of Mexican history. The title of these two articles, written by Reyna Hernández-Tubert, the ‘Mexican social unconscious’ (Hernández-Tubert, 2021a, 2021b), generates a lot of curiosity and promises a fascinating reading experience, especially for those interested in Latin American history.…”