Maria Rita Kehl


Maria Rita Kehl, ORB is a Brazilian psychoanalist, journalist, poet, essayist, cronista and literary critic. In 2010, she won the Jabuti Award in the category "Education, Psychology and Psychoanalysis" and the Human Rights Award from the Brazilian government "in the Media and Human Rights category".

Life and career

Kehl was born in Campinas, São Paulo. She graduated in psychology at the University of São Paulo, and start writing for Jornal do Bairro while still at college.She worked for the newspaper managed by writer Raduan Nassar fror two years. She was editor for the alternative newspaper Movimento, critical of the Brazilian military regime.
Kehl also participated in the foundation of newspaper Em Tempo and wrote as a freelancer for Veja, Isto É, Folha de S. Paulo and O Estado de S. Paulo.
In 1979, Kehl began her master's degree in social psychology and wrote the dissertation "O Papel da Rede Globo e das Novelas da Globo em Domesticar o Brasil Durante a Ditadura Militar". In 1981, Kehl started attending patients. In 1997,she got her doctorate in psychoanalysis at PUC-SP. The research resulted in the book Deslocamentos do Feminino - A Mulher Freudiana na Passagem para a Modernidade in 1998. Kehl has written several books and articles in areas of literature. culture, and psychoanalysis.
In 2012, she was invited to participate in the National Truth Commission, which was installed on May 16 to investigate human rights' violations which had occurred in Brazil between September 18, 1946 and October 5, 1988.

Published works