Estanislao Zuleta: A Self-taught Psychoanalyst

Estanislao Zuleta is not very well known outside of Colombia,  despite the fact that this philosopher was an adviser to the United Nations and really had an influence on the culture of his country. Nevertheless, his work is read by new generations.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Estanislao Zuleta’s career is that he was self-taught. He rejected formal education. He also preferred to convey knowledge through spoken words. Most of his works consist of transcribed teaching.

Estanislao Zuleta was concerned about politics, education, and power structures in Latin America. His primary focus was ethics. Zuleta followed the theories of Freud and Lacan, but he also had his own theories. This, in itself, is a defining characteristic of psychoanalysis. They say there are as many types of psychoanalysis as there are psychoanalysts.

The beginning of Estanislao Zuleta

Zuleta was born in Medellín, Colombia, in 1935.  Zuleta’s father died in a plane crash when he was just five months old. The accident really had great news value when Carlos Gardel, who was an icon in the tango world, was also on this plane.

At a young age, Estanislao Zuleta decided to drop out of school. He believed the school limited potential instead of helping students develop skills. From that moment on, he began a self-taught journey that never stopped. The ideas of the ancient Greek philosophers, Nietzsche, Marx and Freud, fascinated him.

Ultimately, his greatest mentor was Fernando González, whom many people called “the philosopher from somewhere.” González was a Colombian thinker who was famous for his sharp reflections on society and because of the outrageous way he lived.

He was also recognized for promoting free thought and free expression. Estanislao Zuleta was his most famous student.

Philosopher and psychoanalyst

Despite not having much formal academic instruction, Estanislao Zuleta was a university professor most of his life. In 1980, the University of Valle awarded him an Honoris Causa  for his research in psychology. When he received it, he gave his most famous speech; Praise to Difficulty.

However, he had many personal problems. People knew him for his excessive consumption of alcohol. 

He also considered reading to be a top priority when it came to education, politics and thought. One of his most famous and beloved works is actually On Reading . In this work, he says that it is really important to understand what one is reading.

His work

Estanislao Zuleta frequently visited bars and cafés. He never rejected anyone who wanted to sit and talk to him. Another of his essays is an excuse for conversation and he was one of the leading representatives of this art.

He argued that the only ethical thing to do when exchanging ideas with someone with other views is to seek arguments that support what the other person is saying, rather than rejecting it. If you can not find these arguments, then you can feel free to think what you have been thinking all along.

He believed that psychoanalysis could change the world. With that assumption, he made several psychoanalytic observations of society. One of his most important works is I dealization of Individual and Collective Life,  where he argues that it only leads to authoritarian societies if one tries to build “social paradise”.

One of his good friends, Jorge Vallejo, wrote a biography of Zuleta some years after he died. It’s called La rebelión de un burgués .

Today, there is a center dedicated solely to studying his work. Zuleta is a thinker who is worth getting to know and analyze, despite the fact that he is not very famous.