A machine of the same: Repetition in the foundational discourse of the Argentinean “being” (1976–1983)

ABSTRACT

Using the example of the military regime in Argentina (1976-1983) and relevant archival materials, this article demonstrates the prerequisite of exalted language in constructing an enemy and how a discursive ‘machine of the same’ was put into operation. The author argues that what made this operation unique is its structure of repetition that stimulated “the tendency to merge” what is “foreigner-to-the-ego”, and the “enemy outside” into a single concept in the Argentinian national psyche.

As a theoretical lens, the author examines the military regime's language through Freud's understanding of groups and civilization and Laplanche's proposition that cultural narratives in the form of mytho-symbolic explanations help us translate the sexual drive and offer a “solution” to the helplessness of the infant-adult.

The author further claims that at other times a cultural narration functions as an anti-translation device when set against the emergence of a new net of significations. The nation's founding narrative of an Occidental-Spanish-Catholic “being” that first effaced its indigenous origins and then its Arabic and Jewish inheritance was brought back by the military regime as a mytho-symbolic narration that formed a shield against the repressed remnants of the enigmatic message pressing for a new translation.

Basé sur l'exemple du régime militaire en Argentine (1976-1983) et des documents d'archives, cet article met en évidence le prérequis d'un langage exalté dans la construction d'un ennemi et la façon dont une « machine du même » discursive a été mise en œuvre. L'autrice soutient que la spécificité de cette opération est caractérisée par la structure de répétition qui a stimulé « la tendance à fusionner » ce qui est « étranger au moi » et l' « ennemi extérieur » en un seul et unique concept au sein de la psyché nationale argentine.

Dans la perspective théorique qu'elle adopte, l'autrice analyse le langage du régime militaire du point de vue de la compréhension de Freud des groupes et de la civilisation et de la proposition de Laplanche selon lequel les récits culturels sous forme d'explications mytho-symboliques nous aident à traduire la pulsion sexuelle et offrent une « solution » à la détresse de l'infans-adulte.

L'autrice soutient qu'à d'autres époques un récit culturel a pu fonctionner comme un dispositif anti-traduction pour compenser l'émergence d'un nouveau jeu de significations. Le récit fondateur d'un « être » occidental-espagnol- catholique, qui commença par effacer ses racines indigènes, puis son héritage arabe et juif, fut rétabli par le régime militaire en tant que récit mytho-symbolique servant de bouclier aux vestiges refoulés du message énigmatique en quête d'une nouvelle traduction.

Am Beispiel des Militärregimes in Argentinien (1976-1983) und einschlägigem Archivmaterial wird in diesem Artikel aufgezeigt, welche Voraussetzung eine überhöhte Sprache für die Konstruktion eines Feindes hat und wie eine diskursive „Maschine des Gleichen“ in Gang gesetzt wurde. Die Autorin zeigt, dass die Einzigartigkeit dieser Operation in der Struktur der Wiederholung liegt, die in der argentinischen nationalen Psyche die "Tendenz zur Verschmelzung" des "Fremden im Ich" und des "äußeren Feindes" zu einem einzigen Konzept förderte.

Theoretisch betrachtet die Autorin die Sprache des Militärregimes mit Hilfe von Freuds Verständnis über Gruppen und Zivilisation und Laplanches These, dass kulturelle Narrative in Form von mythisch-symbolischen Erklärungen uns helfen, den Sexualtrieb zu übersetzen und eine „Lösung“ für die Hilflosigkeit des Säuglings und Erwachsenen anzubieten.

Die Autorin behauptet weiter, dass eine kulturelle Erzählung zu anderen Zeiten als Antiübersetzungsinstrument fungiert, wenn sie dem Entstehen eines neuen Bedeutungsnetzes gegenübersteht. Die Gründungserzählung der Nation von einem abendländisch-spanisch-katholischen „Wesen“, das zunächst seine indigenen Ursprünge und dann sein arabisches und jüdisches Erbe auslöschte, wurde vom Militärregime als mythisch-symbolische Erzählung zurückgebracht, die einen Schutzschild gegen die verdrängten Reste der rätselhaften Botschaft bildete, die auf eine neue Übersetzung drängte.

Utilizzando l'esempio del regime militare in Argentina (1976-1983), e facendo anche ricorso a materiale d'archivio risalente a quell'epoca, il presente lavoro dimostra in primo luogo come l'uso di un linguaggio esaltato costituisca un fondamentale prerequisito nella costruzione di un nemico, e poi come nel contesto in esame sia stata messa in moto una ‘macchina discorsiva dell'identico’. L'autrice sostiene che a rendere unico nel suo genere l'operato di tale ‘macchina’ è stata la sua struttura basata sulla ripetizione - una struttura che ha stimolato “la tendenza ad assimilare” ciò che è “estraneo all'Io” e “il nemico esterno” in un'unica entità all'interno della psiche nazionale argentina.

La lente teorica attraverso cui l'autrice esamina il linguaggio del regime militare fa interagire la concezione freudiana dei gruppi e della civiltà con l'idea di Laplanche secondo cui le narrazioni culturali in forma di spiegazioni mitico-simboliche ci aiutano a tradurre la pulsione sessuale e offrono una “soluzione” all'impotenza dell'infante-adulto.

L'autrice sostiene a tale proposito che, in altri tipi di circostanze, una narrazione culturale può funzionare come dispositivo antitraduttivo, laddove essa viene contrapposta all'emergere di una nuova rete di significati. Nel caso in questione, ad esempio, la narrazione fondativa della nazione, che prevede un “essere” occidentale-spagnolo-cattolico spogliato prima delle sue origini indigene e poi dell'eredità araba ed ebraica, è stata recuperata dal regime militare come narrazione mitico-simbolica avente la funzione di proteggere dai resti rimossi di un messaggio enigmatico che premeva in cerca di una nuova traduzione.

En este artículo se utiliza el ejemplo del régimen militar en Argentina (1976-1983) y material de archivo pertinente para mostrar el prerrequisito del lenguaje exaltado en el proceso de construcción del enemigo y cómo se puso en funcionamiento una “maquinaria [discursiva] de lo mismo”. La autora sostiene que lo que hizo que esta operación fuera única es su estructura de repetición que estimulaba “la tendencia a fusionar” lo que es “extraño al yo” y el “enemigo exterior” en un solo concepto en la psique nacional argentina.

Como perspectiva teórica, la autora estudia el lenguaje del régimen militar a partir de la comprensión que tenía Freud acerca de los grupos y la civilización y la propuesta de Laplanche de que las narrativas culturales en forma de explicaciones mitosimbólicas nos ayudan a traducir la pulsión sexual y ofrecer una “solución” al desvalimiento del adulto-niño.

Además, la autora sostiene que, en otros tiempos, una narración cultural funciona como un dispositivo antitraducción cuando se establece contra la emergencia de un nuevo conjunto de significados. El régimen militar trajo de vuelta la narrativa fundacional de la nación de un “ser” (“being”) católico-español-Occidental, que primero borró sus orígenes indígenas y luego su herencia árabe y judía, como una narración mitosimbólica que formó un escudo contra los remanentes reprimidos de un mensaje enigmático que presiona por una nueva traducción.

KEYWORDS:

• Structure of repetition
• Mytho-Symbolic
• anti-translation device

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Notes

1 Sexual is understood here as designating the paradigm of what the child cannot master, the excitation of the body provoked by the “compromised” messages of the adult’s unconscious (Laplanche 1999).

2 During this tragic decade, it was not only the military forces who killed. At least four killing machines were in operation: the Triple-A (AAA) (paramilitary group hunting left-leaning thinkers and activists); Montoneros (left-leaning Peronists); the Ejercito Revolucionario del Pueblo (ERP) (Marxists), and the army, which sometimes entangled its activities with the Triple-A. See Canaletti and Barbano (2009) for a description.

3 See Cooney (2007) and Grinberg (2022).

4 For a historical analysis of previous decades as precursors of this bloody decade, see, among others, Brennan (2018), Fernandez Roich (2016), Lew (2013), Marchak (1999), Mignone (1986, 1988, 1991), Pineau et al. (2006), Ranalletti (2010), Tomic (2021), Verbitsky (2005), Wanschelbaum (2006) and Wiley (2018).

5 The “disappeared” included pregnant women. Pregnant prisoners were kept alive until they gave birth and then murdered. At least 500 newborns were taken from their parents while in captivity and given to military couples to raise as their own.

6 For example, in the Archivo Banade, in March 2000, an employee of the Ministry of the Interior found files in a vault of the former Banco National de Desarrollo (National Bank of Development). Among others, the Archivos de la Dirección de Inteligencia de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (Archive of the Province of Buenos Aires Intelligence Directory) opened in 2003. See also Invernizzi (2013) and Invernizzi and Gociol (2002).

7 The relationship between the signified and the signifier “always appears fluid, always ready to come undone”. A forceful knotting is required: “This point around which all concrete analysis of discourse must operate I shall call a quilting point (point de capiton)” (Lacan 1993, 261).

8 Thousands of people were killed during this period and many more after the military coup.

9 Carl Schmitt (2005) explains that to say the law cannot be applied to chaos is another way of stating that law is not the essential function of sovereignty. The work of sovereignty precedes the law, creating a regular “frame of life”, which the law preserves and codifies but does not instantiate. A legal decision that is readily obeyed must have a territory to which it is applied – not a neutral space but a space that can be obedient.

10 Citations used to identify the numbered quotations (No. 1 to No. 7) correspond to the archival nomenclature of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University Library.

11 Ricardo Bruena (1976–1977), Juan José Catalán (1977–1978), General Albano Harguindeguy (1978), Juan Rafael Llerena Amadeo (1978–1981), Carlos Burundarena (1981), and Cayetano Liciardo (1981–1983).

12 Research on this period of “La Reconquista” and the “expulsion” of the Arabs from Spain contradicts this assumption. See, for example, Olague Videla (1974) and Ortega y Gasset (1921).

13 Saying something produces consequential effects upon the audience’s feelings, thoughts, or actions of the speaker or other persons; it may be done with the design, intention, or purpose of producing them. See John Austin (1962, 101).

14 See James Simsarian (1938): “The diplomatic correspondence of Spain, England, France, and the Netherlands, particularly during the seventeenth century, contains evidence that the foreign offices of these nations from the latter part of the fifteenth century to the end of the nineteenth century considered the discovery of new land symbolically equivalent to taking possession, [which constituted] an adequate basis for legal title to terra nullius in America” (111).

15 This excessive potency can be conceived analogically as an immune reaction against the body’s own components, or, rather, a failure to suppress the cell’s self-destructive mechanism. See Derrida’s (2005) concept of autoimmunity of democracy.

16 “Los brasileros salen de la selva. Los mexicanos vienen de los indios. Pero nosotros, los argentinos. Llegamos de los barcos”. Litto Nebbia, songwriter and performer. Title of the song: “Llegamos de los Barcos” [We Arrived from the Ships].

17 “The opposition concerns two distinct mechanisms in the sphere of human fantasy: the bound (secondary) process and the unbound (primary) process” (Laplanche 2004, 456).

18 Here we can speculate, more radically, that the pressure demands, and at times achieves, a transduction, a transformation of form, analogous to the translation of a sensory signal in the sensory system to an electrical signal in the nervous system. Transduction in the nervous system typically refers to stimulus-alerting events wherein a physical stimulus is converted into an action potential, which is transmitted along axons towards the central nervous system for integration. It is a step in the larger process of sensory processing (Scarfone, personal communication May-June, 2022).

19 Derrida (2005, 90–91) emphasizes that “democracy to come” is a phrase and not a sentence, so it cannot be translated into or reduced to a sentence like “democracy is to come”.

20 The superego messages emerge from a psychotic persecutory enclave of the repressed unconscious. Its categorical status is untranslatable (Laplanche 1989).