PORTO-CARRERO, JULIO PIRES (1887-1937)

This Brazilian psychiatrist was born at Pernambuco in northeast Brazil on September 7, 1887, and died in Rio de Janeiro on December 30, 1937.

He studied medicine at Rio de Janeiro, specialized in psychiatry, and became a full professor of forensic medicine in the law faculty. A disciple of Juliano Moreira and "wild psychoanalysis," he used Freud's method as early as 1924 and was the most important precursor of the psychoanalytic movement in Rio. Sponsored by Durval Marcondes, he founded an affiliate society of the Sociedade brasileira psicanálise in 1928 with Juliano Moreira as president and himself as secretary.

Between 1929 and 1934 he wrote seven works on psychoanalysis. In the first, Ensaios de psicanálise (1929, Essays on Psychoanalysis), he displayed a good knowledge of the works of the great psychoanalysts. These essays consist of different articles and papers dating back to 1925. The first chapter, "The Concept and History of Psychoanalysis," is very important in terms of historical data. In the article "Clinical Aspects of Psychoanalysis" (1925), he declared: "Sooner or later, it will become standard practice to apply psychoanalysis to daily life, to pedagogy, to trade even, to military training, to legal investigations and to penitentiary systems." In "A Brief Notion of Psychoanalysis" (1927), he wrote: "Thanks to this concept, we have a better understanding than before of how civilization developed, the genesis of languages, the origin of myths and legends, the reason behind works of art and the motives for professional vocations."

In his course, "Psychoanalysis Applied to Education" (1928), given with Deodato de Morais, we read: "Although psychoanalysis was initially therapeutic [. . .] it has invaded the sphere of the mind sciences." He demonstrated the evolution of Freudian ideas and responded objectively to Freud's critics. Other articles revealed his researcher's spirit. Finally, in "The Value of Psychoanalysis" (1931), he described his personal experience, his doubts and certainties, his positive and negative results. His limits, in terms of the technique he accepted, came from his lack of analytical training. He also translated Freud's The Future of an Illusion (1927).

As a renowned professor of forensic medicine, he stressed the necessity of having a human and a psychoanalytic understanding of the criminal. He enjoyed great influence in student circles and among the intellectual elite and paved the way for the future psychoanalysts of the 1940s.

He was in the habit of organizing musical receptions in which he played an active part. On the evening of December 30, 1937, just as his guests were arriving, he felt ill and suddenly died.

Marialzira Perestrello

See also: Brazil.

Bibliography

Perestrello, Marialzira. (1986). Primeiros encontros com a psicanálise, 1899-1937; Os precursores do movimento psicanalítico no Brasil, 1899-1937. Jornal Brasileiro de Psicanálise, 35, 4, 195-208.

Porto-Carrero, Julio Pires. ([1929] 1934). Ensaios de psicanálise. Rio de Janeiro: Flores e Mano, 2d ed.

——. ([1932] 1934). Psicologia profunda ou psicanálise. Rio de Janeiro: Irmãos Pongetti.

——. (1934). Grandezas e misérias do sexo. Rio de Janeiro: Irmãos Pongetti.