Σάββατο 28 Νοεμβρίου 2015

TANGO: AN ALLEGORY FOR LIFE


 
Nick Marketos  Psychotherapist

 
 

First they must learn
to suffer,
After to love,
after leaving,
And finally,  to walk
without any thought

lyrics of Homero Exposito * from tango ‘’Naranjo en flor’’

 
Passion

 Ferrer says: " Tango is a lifestyle, how to feel and conceive the existence and the world passionately." This is a passion that is contagious and becomes a pandemic and a light that moves the shadows of life, is a gesture that invites to the banquet of life. "
 
This is a way of living that let the life flow, not restrained by control, scheduling, scenography or illusions. That means that the process of life takes over the whole being, and feelings are deep and intense about everything. Life is something which goes, as Lacan says, à la derive (1966).  Life goes down the river, from time to time touching a bank, staying for a while here and there, without understanding anything.

The power of the passion is capable of driving us toward destructive and/or creative activity.

The relation with the object (person or ideal) is erotic and love is selfless and unconditional. When the passionate bond passes from the register of pleasure in the register of need, the subject submits to the power of the other, and therefore transfers to her/him the potential to cause greatest pain. This submission causes hatred and destructive impulse. In this area the death drive operates. They can kill or die "for love», they can kill or die for the lack of an addictive object.

When the need for mental and social survival is great -due to psychological or social vulnerability- the subject is involved in passionate attachments, of extreme dependence and exploitation. The necessity of attachment entails the inevitability of alienation because one’s desire to persist on his own being requires submitting to a world of others that is fundamentally alien. These attachments are the linchpin of the psychic life of power (Butler, 1993).


The issue of love and death abounds in the lyrics of tangos, like Mario Soto lyrics of tango "Pasional" and music by Jorge Caldara, played by the Pugliese orchestra:


Te quiero siempre así ... estás clavada en mí
 
como una daga en la carne.
 
 
Y ardiente y pasional ... temblando de ansiedad
 
quiero en tus brazos morir.
 
I love you always this way… you are stuck to me
like a dagger in the flesh.
And ardent and passionate … trembling with anxiety
I want to die in your arms.

 

A recurring motif of passionate attachment in tango lyrics is ‘’femme fatale’’.  The ‘’femme fatale’’ is a dimension of passion incarnated in a kind of woman who is capable of driving man to the worst.   The male’s fantasy of the “femme fatale” contemplates the danger of self-destruction in love.  He often knowingly submits himself to her for it is precisely her dangerous sexuality that he desires (Bronfen E., 2004). 

 
The fatale is simultaneously an archetypal object of desire, while also using her status as a tool or as a weapon in the sex-war, is claiming agency and committing the cardinal sins of active disobedience and selfish desire: wanting and getting things for herself (Place, 1998). 


The tango ‘’Mi noche triste’’, of Pascual Contursi, marks the beginning of one of the typical love dramas in tango: ‘’The abandoned man’’.

"Percanta que me amuraste
en lo mejor de mi vida
dejándome el alma herida
Espinas y en el corazon,
sabiendo que te queria,
que vos eras mi Alegría
y mi sueño Abrasador
para Mí ya no hay Consuelo
y por eso me encurdelo
pa' olvidarme de tu amor ".
...
"Y si la vieras catrera
como se pone Cabrera
Cuando no nos a los dos ».
 
 
Woman, you dumped me
at the prime of my life
leaving my soul wounded
and dullness in my heart,
knowing that I loved you,
that you were my joy
and my burning dream...
There is no solace for me,
that is why I’m getting drunk
to forget about you love.
And if could see the bed
how upsets it gets
when it does not see us both.

Another motif of passionate attachment is the "complex of demonic lover", characterized by an attempt to transcend the self in a state of surrender, which dramatically fails. This results in submission by women to male possession, as the woman is forced to give up her power rather than yield to it. Sadomasochism results, instead of surrender and sensual and erotic modes of merger. Possession is followed by abuse and abandonment by the male “other” onto whom the woman has projected all her expectations. Then her fantasy masculine god muse, turns into the negative side of the father image, psychically imposed on the inner child self.  When the desired surrender to a powerful mentor results in submission to a demon lover, the existence of these women fades  both psychically and physically (Kavaler S., 2000).

Tango ‘’Madame Ivonne’’ of Enrique Cadicamo written in 1933 tells the story of a young Parisian girl ("pebeta") from the neighborhood of Montmartre, with cheerful mood and beauty, whom all men love, until succumbing to the charm of a virile Argentinean, whom follows in Buenos Aires.   At the end it shows us that ten years later, she is still in Buenos Aires and has changed from mademoiselle Ivonne in «Madame» (a woman who runs a brothel) and has lost everything: beauty,  youth, joy.  Even the man who brought her to Buenos Aires.

Madame Ivonne,
 
 
la Cruz del Sur fue como el sino,
 
Madame Ivonne,
 
fue como el sino de tu suerte ...
 
Alondra gris,
 
tu dolor me conmueve,
 
tu pena es de nieve ...
 
Madame Ivonne ...
 
Han pasado diez años que zarpó de Francia,
 
Mamuasel Ivonne hoy solo es Madam ...
 
La que va a ver que todo quedó en la distancia
 
con ojos muy tristes bebe su champán.
 
Ya no es la papusa del Barrio Latino,
 
ya no es la mistonga florcita de lis,
 
ya nada le queda ... Ni aquel argentine
 
que entre tango y mate la alzó de París
 
…Madame Ivonne,
the Southern Cross was like the destiny,
Madame Ivonne,
was as the destiny of your luck …
Skylark gray
Your pain moves me,
Your sorrow is of snow …
Madame Ivonne …
It has been ten years since she sailed from France,
Mamuasel Ivonne today is only Madam …
Who sees everything long way away at a distance
with very sad eyes she drinks her champagne.
She is no longer the pretty thing of the Latin Quarter,
she no longer is the humble lily flower,
She has nothing is left … Nor even that Argentine man
who between tango and green tea lifted her from Paris.

 

Eroticism

It is argued that tango is the dance of sexuality, thereby, initially was prohibited, and censored.  The couple dance tango in close embrace and frontal positioning of the bodies, so that to need the maximum possible contact of the bodies.  The bodies being in coordination and in circulation of sensory currents are engaged in an energetic fusion. This “merger bliss” (Hawkes, 2003) is described by some as the elusive and transcendent "moment of tango" (Thomas & Sawyer, 2005). Those who have experienced this moment return to the dance in a continuous pursuit to re-experience it. This situation is what gives the tango its  "addictive" quality.
 

Laurie Hawkes (2003), a French therapist who organizes psychotherapeutic workshops by the means of the tango says: "The excitement and erotic experience means aliveness and excitement brought on by stimulating contact with otherness (another person, the other sex, another’s thoughts, feelings, reactions, etc.). In dancing there can be a whole range of erotic feelings and experiences.

Many women describe an euphoric feeling, “like being in love,” after a few good dances during which both partners are well attuned to each other. Fewer men have shared this sense with me, although they too seem to experience a kind of magic when dancing with an attuned partner. However, this contact is seldom actually sexual. Most dancers are more concerned with leading/following well, performing their steps accurately, and the joy of managing well and really flowing together than with seducing people

As they become more confident, they discover the excitement of working/dancing/moving with another, of reaching a deeper level of understanding the other at a subsymbolic level. This excitement can then revitalize other aspects of their lives. The eroticism of one’s own body—its aliveness, sensing, moving, experiencing the pleasure of movement, feeling competent and attuned with a partner, exchanging energy, feeling a partner’s energy responding to one’s own—all this can awaken sexual feelings, although that does not necessarily occur”.

 
    Some liken dancing tango to practicing Zen meditation.   Others view tango as a tantric practice, that is, a spiritual practice that acknowledges the body and its desires. Brian Dunn and Deborah Sclar run "Tantric Tango" workshops in Colorado (Polo 2010).    Johanna Siegmann (2000), author of “The Tao of Tango”, connected the tango to the Chinese philosophy of Tao. Massimo Habib, a tango therapist in Italy, described his approach to working with male and female polarities in his workshops. He attempts to “rebalance with special exercises the male and female parts of each person so they can experience both parts. (Polo,  2010).

 
The desire

Desire is not really for an object. It can not be said to be about something. Or rather, to the extent that is of something, it is also necessarily about something else. The needs and requirements can be met, but the desire cannot, and the substitution is the most reliable rule. The process of discovering what we might call "the truth" of our own desire, includes exploration of substitutes, as defined in the history of the subject. The chain of replacements will always move on the direction of childhood and, of course, in encounter with mother. The first desires were unexpressed, our first object unknown, and each “rediscovery” of the object of desire in our lifetime will never be completely separate from the error (Perelberg, 2012).
 
Irigaray writes "what women desire is precisely nothing, and at the same time everything.  Woman’s desire involves a different economy, one that undermines the goal-object of a desire, diffuses the linearity toward a single pleasure, and disconcerts fidelity to a single discourse…»

De Beauvoir considers that for woman desire is linked with mysticism. Satisfaction resembles the experience of the mystics who say that they have experienced it, but they know nothing about it (De Beauvoir, 1949).


Embrace

The adventure of dancing tango begins with the hug, the original and special moment when the man meets the woman to dance. Much of the dancing is performed in a closed embrace where the upper torsos are, so close to each other that the rhythms of one’s heart and breathe are easily discernible. This frame mode bestows upon the emotion the right to guide the dancers’ steps.  Dancing tango is an emotional process. Juan Carlos Copes, one of the most well-known tango dancers in the world, summed this relation when he said, “Sometimes there is confusion that the tango is the steps. No. Tango is the feeling. It is one heart and four legs” (Santiago & Groisman, 1993).

 

Intimacy

By dancing tango in a way that is repeated, foreseeable, and reassuring, we have a possibility of becoming close (more or less close, according to our choice) and the certainty of separating thereafter as well as the possibility of connecting again.  Dancing is an enactment of what happens in intimate relationships: a game of keeping and violating personal boundaries; a simulation of the process of dependence - conflict - and mutual interdependence. The partners are based on their own axis, and sometimes they invade in each other's space, when a partner is doing a “sacada”, or when the woman relies on the man's balance at “volcada”.

The physical boundaries of tango allow for a healthy exploration of intimacy issues. 

Contradictory desires mark the intimacy of daily life: people want to be vulnerable and om¬nipotent, caring and aggressive, predictable and mysterious (Berlant, 2000). People often are afraid of intimacy, because, it might arouse fear that someone could be absorbed by the other, and could lose self, especially when the core of ego is not firm enough. Such a situation activates the circular sequence of approaching-conflict-distancing-rapprochement.


Trust

The couple cannot dance tango without mutual trust. Trust is involved, at any situation where vulnerable parts of self are to be exposed. We expect that the other will be confident enough so as not to get advantage of our vulnerability to control or blackmail us and will not betray us. Trust is not a distinction that anyone can award. It is a dynamic process in relationship, and evolves as much one trusts one’s own capabilities to handle his own vulnerabilities and thus to become risqué in exposure. Trust requires a degree of empathy because selfish motives hamper the growth of the relationship and causes it to stagnate.

Basic trust (Erikson E., 1959) is established in early years of life. The infant depends on others to get needs met.  If this is accomplished the child develops a sense of trust which carries on. If the trust crisis is not resolved, then the individual may carry a sense of mistrust and fear into adult life relationships. In that case, the individual attempts to master or manipulate the human environment perceived as essential for her/his survival.

 

Pain and nostalgia

Since the beginning Tango is nostalgic. It refers to a past that was ideal. The exile is a central topic, around which revolve other issues’ and it is an existential exile. Man destabilized himself, knots that pain of existence in a celebration that is always intimate. Depth of emotion is essential, so that there is a saying that “you must have suffered in life to dance tango” (Jaffe, 2007).

 
Loss is expressed and dealt in tango. This is the loss of romantic dreams, for freedom, strength and safety. All our experiences of loss are bearing in mind the original relationship with the primordial mother. We all carry inside us the sign of our first relationship with the world through the universal mother. Distancing from her is a reality inextricably linked to all human nostalgia, religion and faith in political utopias. When, as adults, we long for what has been lost, we mentally refer to something unknown and pre- symbolizated. (Stets J. E. & Burke P.J.)

The famous tango VOLVER of Alfredo Le Pera,,, states:

 

"Siempre se vuelve al primer amor"
always turns back to first love

 

In Cátulo Castillo and Sebastian Piana's, tango red ink (1941), nostalgia for the immigrant's distant homeland is beautifully expressed :

 

Y  aquel buzón carmín.
 
 

Y  aquel fondín
 
 donde lloraba el tano
 
 
su rubio amor lejano
 
 
que mojaba con bon vin.

Y   

And that mail box 

carmine,

and that tavern

where an Italian cried

a blond distant love 

washing it with  with  cheap wine.

 

In this tango, as in many others, the immigrant expresses with clarity his nostalgia and grief, evoking both the distant blond, and at the same time, his childhood and cultural space,  where he passed the first years of his life. This tango links longing for the distant homeland with the lost years of childhood and asks:

 

¿Pónde estará mi arrabal?
 

¿Quién se robó mi niñez?

 
¿En qué rincón, luna mía, volcás,
 
 como entonces,
 
tu clara alegría?

 

Where might my suburb be?...

Who stole my childhood...?
In which corner, my moon, 
you empty out, like then,
your clear happiness?
 

Along with hopeful expectations that often lead to migration converge feelings of pain and longing for the homeland and lost childhood. From a psychoanalytic point of view we can understand that when mourning for all losses, becomes intolerable, paranoid schizoid mechanisms supervene that deny loss and idealize the lost  (Dimov J. Et al, 2004).
 
The mechanism of idealization denies the distant homeland is also a depriving mother who expelled his child. In this sense, migration is a traumatic experience that is constantly repeated in various contexts, which can be understood in its reference to the unconscious. Homeland which expels   the migrant and  women who abandons (amura) are the same phenomenon, as well the  migration from the countryside to the city and from the suburbs to downtown. Everyone who has felt dismissed odd and useless is identifying himself  with this drama.

 
The woman in tango mythology

In mythology of tango inhabit the archetypes of woman muse, and woman Porteña. La Rubia Mireya is a fabulous woman invented in lyrics of songs and in the imagination of tangueros, and represents the muse of her time. Julián Centeya (1963) says about her "Maybe the blond Mireya never existed. Possibly her tall, slim and aristocratic figure never danced the slow, undulating rhythm of tango. But...! Tango - invented her in the moisture a song. And, we are the generation that accepted her this way, our unlimited imagination brought her to us to hold her through a human pain, and make her the lady of tango of that period as something like a legend. "

Poets have also created a kind of Porteña woman. In Pascual Contursi tango ‘’Mi noche triste’’, both elements of the porteña woman are concentrated masterfully   (Vázquez M., 1999). As mother and as mistress:

"Cuando Voy a mi cotorro
y lo veo desarreglado,
todo triste abandonado
me dan ganas de llorar "
"Siempre Traigo bizcochitos
pa'tomar con matecito
como Cuando Estabas vos "
 
"Ya no hay en el Bulin
aquellos frasquitos Lindos
adornados con moñitos .
 
When I return to my room
I find it all messed up,
very sad, abandoned,
I feel like crying,
I always bring cookies
to accompany the mate
like if you were still here
 
There are no longer in the room
those pretty little bottles
decorated with ribbons,

 

In these verses man loses a maternal woman who reveals a kind of love full of tenderness, while passionate love for the woman - mistress conquers him, thus he says :

 
"Percanta que me amuraste
en lo mejor de mi vida
dejándome el alma herida
Espinas y en el corazón,
sabiendo que te queria,
que vos eras mi Alegría
y mi sueño Abrasador
para Mí ya no hay Consuelo
y por eso me encurdelo
pa' olvidarme de tu amor ".
...
"Y si la vieras la catrera
como se pone Cabrera
Cuando no nos ve a los dos».
 
Woman, you dumped me
at the prime of my life
leaving my soul wounded
and dullness in my heart,
knowing that I loved you,
that you were my joy
and my burning dream...
There is no solace for me,
that is why I’m getting drunk
to forget about you love.
 
And if could see the bed
how upsets it gets
when it does not see us both.

In the lyrics early tangos abound “The astray girls”. These girls are trying to get rid of a poor social environment and find prostitution the only way out. Inequities in social class condemn poor girls from demoralized families to using sex as a means to gain excitement and luxury. The tangos «Flor de Fango», «Margot», «Zorro Gris», «El Motivo», «Mano a Mano», «Ivette», «Milonguita», are clear examples.

Contursi lyrics of «Flor de Fango» (flower of mud) and music by Gentile, show the decision of a teenage girl who in order to do what she liked, she must necessarily “lose her virtue”. Carlos Gardel has sung this tango at 1919, and later Charlo with the orchestra of Francisco Canaro.

"Justo a los Catorce abriles
Te entregaste a la Farra,
Las delicias del Gotan,
Te gustaban Las alhajas,
Los vestidos a la moda
Y Las farras de champán.
 
Fourteen midwives young girl
Delivered at night
And tango whims
I liked the cosmetics ,
The dresses and Lucy
Champagne late nights

 

Tango Milonguita -a name for young prostitutes- with lyrics by Samuel Linnig refers to a key person in the history of tango: the girl of the neighborhood who is fascinated by the cabarets

"¡Estercita!, Hoy te llaman Milonguita,
Flor de lujo y de placer,
flor de noche y cabaret.
¡Milonguita! Los hombres te han hecho mal
Y hoy darías toda tu alma
Por vestirte de percal.
Little Ester!
Today they call you Milonguita,
Flower of luxury and pleasure,
flower of night and cabaret.
Milonguita
Men have hurt you
and today you would give up your whole soul
to dress in percale.

Tango lyrics have a deep symbolic charging and above all on the theme of the mother. In the first decades of the twentieth century Tango poetry oscillates between incomplete and frustrating love relationships and the repetitive theme of the “mother”.  Author Gustavo Cirigliano (1988) assumes that the delinquent woman of Tango is Argentina (the country of dreams and promises), the woman who cheats, betrays, while the mother symbolizes the European country the migrant left, to pursue a chimera.

When Contursi raises the issue of abandonment in Mi noche triste (1917), he also raises a broader question about the search for the unconditional love, the love of a woman who never betrays, always wants the best and forgives in all cases: this is mother.

Payador José Betinoti, composed two years before his death,at 1915, the vals ballad «Pobre mi madre querida» which many singers interpreted. Alberto Castillo’s interpretation at 1949, was  thrilling

 
Pobre mi madre querida,
qué de disgustos le daba!
¡Cuántas veces, escondida,
llorando lo más sentida,
en un rincón la encontraba!
Que yo mismo al contemplarla,
el llanto no reprimía.
Si es la madre en este mundo
la única que nos perdona;
con sentimiento profundo,
sale amor y no abandona
 
My poor beloved mother
,How many sorrows I gave her !
How often poor ,
From soul to cry
I found her in a corner!
Myself to see ,
Not holding of her heartbreak.
mother in this world
is the only one who forgives ;
with deep feeling , love and not leaving .

 

Feminism and tango
 

The position of women in the universe of tango stems from the social positioning of women in Argentina under the particular historical periods. Initially tango was connected with the margins and the brothels and there was the Taita (lunfardo word means bully)  with his imperturbable security and sensuality, who was dragging the woman according to his pace, and imposing direct contact with his body strength, forcing her to be "carried as sleepy." ( Gustavo Hurtado 1994)

Evolutionary as tango was integrated in the dominant social values, it seemed to adopt a somewhat ethereal vision of femininity. The masculine position was taking solace in the fantasies of the romance, the courtly love, the faith vows, all functioned to support the insistence of the dominant patriarchal discourse in the social scene.

After all the deployment of virility, man is alone and defeated, kneels, prays and cries.  Tango lyrics reproduce the story of “Amurado” (Lunfardo term, meaning the man, who is abandoned by his love object).  In homonym tango “Amurado” by  lyrics of Jose de Grandis and music of Pedro Maffia and Pedro Laurenz, man loses the object of his love, and confronts his illusions.

 

Una tarde más tristona que la pena que me aqueja,

arreglo su bagayito y amurado me dejo.

No le dije una palabra, ni un reproche, ni una queja,

la mire que se alejaba y pense… Todo acabo!

O sera porque me cruzan

tan fuleros berretines

de andar por los cafétines

a buscar felicidad…

Cuantas noches voy vagando, angustiado, silencioso,

recordando mi pasado con mi amiga la ilusion;

 

One afternoon, more melancholic that the grief that afflicts me,

she packed her things and she left me abandoned.

I didn’t say to her a single word, not a reproach, not even a grudge,

I saw her going away and I thought… it’s all over!

 

Or it could be because I get

such pitiful illusions

of walking into small cafes

in search of happiness…

How many nights I’m wandering, anguished, silent,

remembering my past with my friend the illusion;

 

Today, gender roles have changed to such a degree that it is certainly not only women who can be considered to be in the feminine position with respect to Other jouissance. As women have gained more access to phallic power, both women and men are also increasingly subject to a profound social alienation. After the achievements in the field of equal rights, feminism today proclaims promulgates the radical alterity of the female.

Μany women with masculine energy traits—independent, outgoing, and aggressive, resist the idea of being a follower, a phrase that felt synonymous with weakness. Other love the “abandon” they experience while dancing tango, which provides a chance for women leading powerful professional lives, to surrender and explore another side of their femininity.  The male and female archetypes, which Carl Jung called anima and animus, coexist in each of us. The key to balance, both in the dance and in life, is for these features to work symbiotically.

Susan Kavaler-Adler, an American psychoanalyst differentiates surrender from submission. She suggests that in tango there is surrender to the senses to music and not submission to the man. The woman (follower) can never surrender to the soul of the dance and its music unless she can surrender to herself. To allow this the leader (usually male), he too must surrender, to himself, to the music, and to his partner. If the leader controls the woman she can only submit or rebel and can never surrender.   Tango is about mutual surrender.  (Kavaler-Adler S.,2000).

 

 
the gaze

 

Acaricia mi ensueño
 
 

el suave murmullo de tu suspirar,
 
 

¡como ríe la vida
 

si tus ojos negros me quieren mirar!
 

Y si es mío el amparo
 

de tu risa leve que es como un cantar,
 

ella aquieta mi herida,
 

¡todo, todo se olvida..!

 
 

It caresses my dream

the smooth murmur of your sighing.

How life laughs

if your black eyes want to look at me.

And if it is mine the shelter

of your slight laughter

that is like singing,

it calms my wound,

everything is forgotten.

El día que me quieras ( Canción 1935)

Music: Carlos Gardel,  Lyrics: Alfredo Le Pera
 

Traditionally, the cabeceo (eye contact and head nod agreement) is used to ask a partner to dance. The ladies sit along the perimeter of the dance floor and try to catch the eye of the gent they wish to dance with, hoping to get that special nod of the head that says, "Want to dance?”

With the visual mediation intersect the ego that looks with the ego that is the spectacle.   The image is the site where we initially meet the other, therefore is the area of the misunderstandings where the obsessive posits himself as invisible spectator in the gallery, the hysterical adheres to the scene of the theater, without hesitation, and the narcissist demands to see the idealized inner image of self - as he/she wants to be (ideal ego) - seen by the other.  We seek for the mirroring of self in the others gaze, believing that there could be finally an answer to the question, “Who am I?” There is no answer to this question - there is no truth that can be given by an agency outside of the subject (Perelberg, 2012).

The rejection

We cannot ultimately control what the other sees. This is so because the other’s perception of us is embedded in the shifting matrix of his own unconscious feelings, memories, fantasies; it is filtered through projective mechanisms that make us desirable, “bad” or invisible to the other (Silverman 1996).

The fulfillment of desire depends on the other, thus the subject in order to meet his desire, must submit his request to the other (to go through the signifiers of the other).  Unavailability constitutes the frustration that resonates with early experiences of deprivation, and leads to foreclosure of expressing feelings and resentment; a confirmation that the desire always meets indifference. The consolidation of the conviction that the other is always depriving leads to projective identification.  We evoke the idea to the other to reject us.

Sensitivity to rejection reflects the consequences of the failure of ego to fulfill the requirements of the ego ideal*. The subject perceives rejection, as punishment for sexual and aggressive desires, and feels aggression toward the person considered the source of this weakening. Ultimately anger is directed towards the self (Brenner, 1975)

 

Epilogue

Dancers whether leading or following, are equally dependent on each other. In this sense, tango can remind us of the inherent reversibility of subject-object relations in human interaction: each one is simultaneously active subject and object, subjected to the power conferred by the position of the other.  The interdependent nature of tango requires that the partners are integrated within themselves or else the dance partnership will suffer. This speaks to the model of every healthy partnership, whereby intimacy and connection are actually increased if each partner is differentiated and has a grounded sense of self.   In tango this is physically demonstrated by the requirement that each partner stay balanced on his or her own axis, while creating an additional axis with their partner in order to form the connection.

The core of what humans strive for is connection and intimacy.  Tango contains symbolisms and condensations of mental life and the tango community can benefit of psychological components.

 

Footnote

*Freud uses three terms for the vector that urges the subject to act morally

ego- ideal (idealich) the idealized self-image of the subject (how I want to be, how I like to be seen by others)

ideal-ego (Ich-ideal) is the vector whose gaze I try to impress with the image of my ego, the Other who supervises and urges me to do my best, the ideal that I try to follow and to realize

-the superego (Uber-ich) The body with the Ich-ideal, the sadistic, vengeful dimension (Freud, 1914a)

 

 

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