ABSTRACT
Psychoanalysis in the community has deep historical roots, being the heir to the initial Freud’s impetus to establish a system of free psychoanalytic practice (free clinics). The historical recovery of this legacy is marked by the demands of contemporary society, which impose the need to take analytical listening outside private practice. Here, as a community practice, psychoanalysis works with the subject’s subjectivity set against the backdrop of unconscious processes and transference relationships. In Portugal, psychoanalytic intervention in the community is not formally documented, although there is informal knowledge of psychoanalysts’ activities in the field. Thus, the present study aimed to: (1) Map the interventions of psychoanalysis in the community in Portugal; (2) Understand their theoretical and technical characteristics and the instruments used. Data were collected using two main instruments: (a) a socio-demographic characterization survey on the types of community intervention conducted by psychoanalysts; (b) a semi-structured interview on the theoretical and technical characteristics of the interventions. Understanding psychoanalytic interventions in the community provides better knowledge of the theoretical and technical scope of psychoanalytic assumptions, their limitations and adaptations, thus fostering dialog and building bridges with other fields of knowledge.