by ANNE-DOMINIQUE ORREA
Political upheavals, economic crises and military juntas have all taken their toll on Argentinians’ mental health. No wonder, then, that the country has the world’s highest concentration of therapists.
‘In Buenos Aires, you’re weird if you don’t get analysed’
There’s one on every corner. In her office on a small Buenos Aires square, María Bondoni, 33, sees patients on a plain grey couch; only the yellow and red cushions add a touch of colour. Five minutes away, Nora Silvestri, in her 60s, offers Lacanian therapy on the first floor of an elegant, Haussmann-style building shaded by jacaranda. Close by, on Avenida Santa Fe, are the consulting rooms of Lucila Aranda (a feminist and Peronist according to her Instagram profile) who specialises in treating anxiety.
The number of shrinks in ‘Villa Freud’, an upscale neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, reflects the national passion for psychotherapy: there are more psychologists per capita in Argentina than anywhere else in the world – 222 for every 100,000 residents according to 2016 WHO statistics.
Here, there’s nothing taboo about taking care of one’s mental health. Even Pope Francis saw a psychoanalyst for six months in 1978 when he was provincial superior for the country’s Jesuits, who were facing pressure from the military dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla (1976-81). ‘You’re weird if you don’t get analysed,’ said Ezequiel Berretta from Villa Freud’s iconic Letra Viva bookstore. He handed me a recent book, ‘What’s this thing called psychoanalysis?’ (¿Qué es esa cosa llamada psicoanálisis?) by Argentinian psychoanalyst Hernán José Molina, who explains the discipline’s basic concepts. According to Berretta, grasping the lingo is key to fitting into Buenos Aires life. ‘Spend a couple of hours around here and you’ll notice that everyone brings up their therapy.’
Freud is part of the capital’s culture. On Avenida Corrientes, a wide thoroughfare where most of the city’s theatres are concentrated, one production, Freud’s last session, has been running since 2012 and fills the Teatro Picadero every performance.
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