The Puerto Rican Syndrome

In this work, Patricia Gherovici examines the so-called Puerto Rican Syndrome in the contemporary world, its social and cultural implications for the growing Hispanic population in the US and, therefore, for the US as a whole. As a mental illness that is, allegedly, uniquely Puerto Rican, this syndrome links nationality and culture to a psychiatric disease whose reappearance recalls the spectacular hysteria that led to the discovery of the unconscious and the birth of psychoanalysis. Gherovici uses the combined insights of Freud and Lacan to examine the current state of psychoanalysis and the Hispanic community in America. Blending these insights with history, current events and her own case material, Gherovici provides a fresh look at the Puerto Rican Syndrome as social and cultural phenomenon. She aims to shed new light on the future of American society and argues that psychoanalysis is not only possible, but much needed in the ghetto.