This article analyzes the presence and consequences of one of the most important historiographic strategies of the stories about psychoanalysis coming from within the psychoanalytic movement. Since the first Freudian writing on the history of psychoanalysis in 1914, the concept of pioneer has become a key concept as a legitimizing formula for adherents of psychoanalytic theories. It is evident how the use of this concept significantly reduces the multiplicity of psychoanalysis as an object of historical research. Finally, some methodological considerations are proposed to guide psychoanalysis from a perspective linked to the social and cultural history of the countries in which it is received.
Key words:
History; psychoanalysis; pioneer; methodology; cultural history