Ambivalence in Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil: Approaches to <i>Gaúcho</i> Social Symptoms

This article examines how gaúcho culture, shaped by the historical experience of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, can be understood as a social symptom rooted in ambivalence, repetition, and narcissistic defenses. This condition is expressed in symbolic formations such as the duel, the poker game, and the farrap o spirit, which rearticulate unresolved tensions between identification and rupture, pride and resentment, autonomy and exclusion. These dynamics are re-enacted in rituals and in cultural narratives marked by melancholic pride and resistance to change. The article also considers how symptoms operate beyond the individual level and become embedded in collective life. Finally, it reflects from a position of estrangement, simultaneously insider and outsider, using this liminality as both an epistemological and ethical stance.