Author Archives: Rogelio Scott-Insua

Medical anthropologist. PhD candidate in Anthropology at Cornell University. Interested in mental health, genomics & society, science wars, and the geopolitics of knowledge. Has conducted research on Brazil, Peru, Argentina, and the United States.
A revolving bookstand at a bus station in São Paulo holds multiple books by Freud. Among the other authors in the bookstand are Nietzsche, Tchékhov, and Agatha Christie.

Freud Among the Geneticists

In late 2022, I was enjoying my last semester in the United States, before I headed to Brazil to conduct ethnographic fieldwork. I spent the fall break in New York City and used my free time to head downtown and browse bookstores. I was specifically looking for books on psychoanalysis in perhaps the most (only?) Freudian city in the country. After all, NYC remains to this day a Freudian oasis within a USA that had largely moved past psychoanalysis and replaced it with cognitive-behavioral therapy, pharmacology, neuro-disciplines, and self-help. (read more...)