Psychiatric-Social Analysis of Obsessive Pathology and the Role of the Judiciary in Latin American Dictatorships

The present article proposes a psychiatric and sociopolitical interpretation of theauthoritarian drift of the Judiciary in contemporary Latin America. It argues that,within dysfunctional state structures, legal institutions—particularly thejudiciary—have become the last operational bastion of state power, often assumingautocratic roles. This transformation is viewed not only in political terms but as theresult of a specific intellectualized psychopathology: obsessive, sadistic, anddominative traits that find expression in lawfare and legal distortion. Drawing frompsychodynamic and socio-institutional analysis, we explore how intellectual pleasure,combined with unaccountable power, can lead to obsessive forms of state violenceunder the appearance of legality and reason. These dynamics sustain a covert buteffective dictatorship that operates under the mask of constitutionalism.