“But what can be affirmed with most certainty

is that the knowledge of Zen and the concern for it

can have a very fertile and clarifying  influence

over the theory and practice of psychoanalysis”

Erich Fromm 

Buddhism made its first open public presentation in Mexico through Psychoanalysis, with the Seminar  -pioneer in the world-  that around Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis, was organised by Erich Fromm and by the  -at the time-  recently formed group of mexican psychoanalysis, which he had trained for over six years. This group had finished its training in 1956, and the Seminar took place in August, 1957. It became the “international level presentation card” of the budding group of mexican psychoanalysts. 

The seminar took place under the auspices of the former Psychoanalysis Department of the Mexican National Autonomous University´s Medicine School (Departamento de Psicoanálisis de la Escuela de Medicina de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), in Erich Fromm´s house in Cuernavaca, Mexico. 

Rainer Funk, Erich Fromm´s work executor, in his book “Fromm, Life and Work”, writes the following about the Cuernavaca Seminar: “A first cultural summit meeting took place in August, 1957, in the form of a joined Seminar with D.T. Suzuki. Fromm, who had contacted Buddhism in the mid 20´s, had also, along with Horney, met Suzuki in the 40´s, during seminars that were held in the University of Columbia, in New York. From then on, he considered Zen Buddhism as a path to the religious experience, which, in spite of its several differences, possesses a great resemblance with the psychoanalytic experience. The Seminar with Suzuki   -who was by the time 86 years old-   ,was held in Fromm´s house, located in number 9, Neptuno Street, in the city of Cuernavaca. It aimed to show that, between the mystic experience and the religious one, there was an intimate relationship, deeply rooted in the humanistic experience that exists in the specific union of the religious with the whole-humane.” Forty people, all Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry professionals, attended the Seminar. More than half of them came from the United States.

Due to the importance that Psychoanalysis  -according to culture scholars-  has had in the formation of western thought, the Seminar has been considered a summit meeting between this western thought and the oriental one. 

Over the last years (1998 and 2003), two volumes have been published. In them, we are able to find collected articles written by psychoanaysts representing different tendencies, about the relationship between Pychonalysis and Buddhism (“The Couch and the Tree”, “Dialogues in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism” and “Psychoanalysis and Buddhism. An Unfolding Dialogue”). In both of their prologues, it is mentioned that no work has surpassed the importance and significance of the already “1960 classic” (date in which the work done in the Cuernavaca Seminar was published) “Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis”. 

In this book, one that compiles what  was said in the Seminar, we may encounter many paragraphs in which Fromm addresses the relevance that the study of Buddhism can have

on Psychoanalysis and psychoanalysts. This book contains an abundance of ideas that are actual hypothesis to be worked on in relation with Psychoanalysis and Buddhism, but that until just recently, were difficult to understand, as there was no access to the buddhist references which support these ideas. Except some texts done by Suzuki, western-language literature about Buddhism was scarce. In consequence, there has been difficulty in investigating, studying and systematizing the broad influence of Budhism in Fromm´s revision of the theory and practice of Psychoanalysis. 

Nowadays, conditions have changed, and the translation of texts of the different buddhist schools to western languages is excellent and abundant. This has allowed some of the IMPAC´s (Instituto Mexicano de Psicoanálisis, A.C.) psychoanalists to begin a systematic research around the influence of Buddhism in Fromm´s thought. In order to do this, the IMPAC has implemented a program, aimed at the research and study of the relationship between Psychoanalysis and Buddhism. The program, which is in charge of psychoanalysts with ample experience in the practice of buddhist meditation, includes the following activities:

1. Mindfulness Meditation Workshops (Vipassana).
2. Weekly Sessions of Mindfulness Meditation Practice.
3. Mexican and Foreign Invited Lecturers representatives of the different buddhist schools.
4. Mindfulness in the Reduction of Stress Courses, according to Jon Kabat-Zinn´s Model of Application of Buddhist Meditation.

The text that Fromm presented in the Cuernavaca Seminar ends with the following paragraph:

“Any use that Psychoanalysis makes of Zen and Psychoanalysis´s Zen, from a western psychoanalyst´s point of view, leads me to express my gratitude for this precious gift from the Orient, especially to Dr. Suzuki, who has managed to express this in such a way, that nothing of its essence is lost in the attempt to translate the oriental thought to the western one, so that the westerner, if he does it heartedly, may get to understand Zen, as far as this can be done before actually achieving the goal. This understanding wouldn´t be possible if not for the fact that 'the nature of the Buddha in within all of us', that man and existence are universal categories, and that the immediate grasping of reality, the awakening, and illumination are universal experiences.” 

Text written by Dr. Alejandro Córdova