São Paulo – Brazilian author and psychanalyst Betty Milan, a granddaughter of Lebanese grandparents, took over a chair at the Academy of Letters of São Paulo last Wednesday (31). The inauguration took place in the headquarters of the academy at Largo do Arouce in São Paulo. Milan is the first psychanalyst to ever hold a chair in the association and joined a group of four other women in the academy. One of them, though, Lygia Fagundes Telles, died on Sunday (3).
The chair held by Betty Milan was previously held by historian Célio Debes, the academy reported in its website. During the inauguration ceremony, the Arab descendant received from São Paulo secretary for culture, Aline Torres, the academic insignia and was greeted by the association’s president, José Renato Nalini. Several authorities were attending, including the consul-general of Lebanon in São Paulo, Rudy El Azzi.
Here’s more on Betty Milan: Lebanese descendant talks immigration in new novel
Born in São Paulo, the author and psychanalyst wrote novels, essays, chronicles and plays, some of them discussing her Arab origins. Despite her career in psychanalysis and literature, Betty Milan holds a degree in Medicine from the University of São Paulo (USP). She specialized in psychanalysis in France advised by Jacques Lacan, one of the greatest names in psychanalysis and the scholar who continued the work of the founder of the field, Sigmund Freud. Milan was a teaching assistant of Lacan at the University of Paris VIII.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
