为什么阿根廷人喜欢看心理医生
BUENOS AIRES — The cafe, just north of a leafy district affectionately nicknamed Villa Freud, was almost empty. Roberto Álvarez sipped his espresso, furrowed his brow and began ticking off the names of psychologists he had seen over the past decade. He stopped counting only when he noticed that he was running short of fingers.
布宜诺斯艾利斯——这个绿树成荫的地区被人们亲切地称为“弗洛伊德别墅”(Villa Freud),北边有家咖啡馆,里面几乎空无一人。罗伯特·阿尔瓦雷斯(Roberto Álvarez)喝了一口浓咖啡,皱起眉头,开始历数他过去几十年看过的心理医生的名字。他数着数着停了下来,发现自己的手指不够用了。
“Let me tell you something about us Argentines,” said Mr. Álvarez, a 51-year-old construction worker, after a tangent on Jacques Lacan, the famous French psychoanalyst who sometimes conducted sessions with patients in taxicabs. “When it comes to choosing a psychologist, we are like women searching for the perfect perfume. We try a bit of this and a bit of that before eventually arriving at the right fit.”
“让我告诉你我们阿根廷人的特点,”阿尔瓦雷斯说,这位51岁的建筑工人此前谈论了雅克·拉康(Jacques Lacan),这位著名的法国心理学家有时候会在出租车上对病人进行心理治疗。“说到挑选心理学家,我们就像寻找完美香水的女人。试试这个,试试那个,最终总能找到合适的人选。”
尽管精神分析疗法在美国和其他国家式微,但是在阿根廷依然盛行,比如布宜诺斯艾利斯的这家诊所。
Indeed, Argentines often manage a smile upon hearing that psychoanalysis has been on the wane in the United States and other countries, rivaled by treatments that offer shorter-term and often cheaper results than years invested in sessions of soul-searching. Even as Argentines grapple with high inflation and an economic slowdown, many seem to know precisely what they want (at least in one area of their lives): psychoanalysis, and plenty of it.
实际上,听到精神分析疗法在美国和其他国家式微,阿根廷人总会挤出一丝微笑,相比长达数年探索灵魂的精神分析疗法,其他疗法疗程更短,费用通常更为便宜。即使阿根廷人备受高通胀和经济衰退的困扰,许多人依然清楚地知道,至少在自己生活的领域他们想要什么:大量的精神分析。
The number of practicing psychologists in Argentina has been surging, to 196 per 100,000 people last year, according to a study by Modesto Alonso, a psychologist and researcher, from 145 per 100,000 people in 2008. That compares with about 27 psychologists per 100,000 people in the United States, according to the American Psychological Association.
阿根廷执业心理医生的人数一直大幅增长,根据心理学家、研究员莫德斯托·阿隆索(Modesto Alonso)的统计,阿根廷每10万人拥有的心理医生人数从2008年的145名增长到去年的196名。美国心理学会(American Psychological Association)的数据显示,美国每10万人大约拥有27名心理医生。
Those numbers make Argentina — a country still brooding over its economic decline from a century ago — a world leader, at least when it comes to people’s broad willingness to bare their souls.
这些数字让阿根廷——这个国家依然对一个世纪前的经济衰退耿耿于怀——处于世界领先地位,至少在人们愿意袒露自己的灵魂方面位居前列。
“There is no taboo here about saying that you see a professional two or three times a week,” said Tiziana Fenochietto, 29, a psychiatrist doing her residency at the Torcuato de Alvear Hospital for Psychiatric Emergencies, a public institution. “On the contrary,” said Ms. Fenochietto, who has been in therapy herself for the past eight years, “it is chic.”
“说到你每周去看两三次心理医生,在阿根廷没什么见不得人的,”29岁的心理医生蒂齐亚诺·费诺基耶托(Tiziana Fenochietto)说,她在托尔夸托·德·阿尔韦亚尔精神病医院(Torcuato de Alvear Hospital for Psychiatric Emergencies) 做住院医师,这是一家公立医疗机构。“恰恰相反,”费诺基耶托说,过去八年她本人也一直在接受心理治疗,“这样做很时髦。”
One need not wander far in this city to get a grip on the resilient obsession with neuroses of various stripes. The name Villa Freud is a nod not only to the Austrian founding father of psychoanalysis, but also to the number of psychologists who ply their trade in the buildings along the elegant streets around Plaza Güemes, in northern Buenos Aires.
我们在这座城市里走不了多远,就能发现人们对各种心理疾病不同程度的痴迷。弗洛伊德别墅这个名字不仅是向奥地利精神分析之父致敬,还是对为数众多的心理医生的认可,他们聚集在布宜诺斯艾利斯北部的格尔梅斯广场附近,在优雅的街道两旁的建筑里进行心理咨询。
A short cab ride away, in the theater district along Avenida Corrientes, lines form each night where the local adaptations of two hit plays have opened side by side: “Freud’s Last Session,” currently an imagined debate between Sigmund Freud and C. S. Lewis, and “Toc Toc,” about obsessive-compulsive disorder.
搭乘出租车走一小段路,就到了科连特斯大街旁的剧院区,目前有两部戏的阿根廷改编版正在联袂上演,每天晚上都有人排队等待入场观看,一部是《弗洛伊德的最后对话》(Freud’s Last Session),它虚构了西格蒙德·弗洛伊德(Sigmund Freud)和C.S.刘易斯(C. S. Lewis) 之间的辩论,另一部是《强迫症》(Toc Toc) ,围绕强迫症患者展开情节。
Slip into many bookstores here, and tomes abound written by Argentines about the psychological ills that plague people, and their cures. Malele Penchansky’s “Universal History of Hysteria” and Alejandro Dagfal’s “Between Paris and Buenos Aires: The Invention of the Psychologist” are among the offerings. A new prizewinning Argentine comic book, “Repairer of Dreams,” even blends psychoanalysis into the tale of a dystopian city called Polenia.
随意走进各家书店,阿根廷人撰写的精装书比比皆是,介绍了困扰人们的心理疾病及其治疗方法。其中有马莱莱·潘查斯基(Malele Penchansky)的《癔病通史》(Universal History of Hysteria),亚历杭德罗·达格法尔(Alejandro Dagfal)的《巴黎与布宜诺斯艾利斯:心理学家的发明》(Between Paris and Buenos Aires: The Invention of the Psychologist)。有本新近获奖的阿根廷漫画《补梦人》(Repairer of Dreams)融入了精神分析学,讲述了一个叫做“波勒尼亚”(Polenia)的反乌托邦城市的故事。
Psychoanalysis is not just for Argentina’s moneyed classes, with some psychoanalysts in the state medical system offering patients free sessions. And while some private health plans do not pay for psychoanalysis, insurance programs for some unionized workers cover dozens of therapy sessions a year.
精神分析不仅针对阿根廷的富裕阶层,公费医疗体系里的一些心理医生也为患者提供免费咨询。尽管有些私人医疗计划不涵盖精神分析的费用,但是部分工会工人的保险计划包括了每年几十次的心理咨询。
“We say no to charity and yes to equal opportunity,” said Adriana Abeles, president and founder of the Fields of Psychoanalysis Foundation, which carries out research, trains students of psychoanalysis and provides therapy. When patients cannot afford to pay, they can volunteer in exchange for their sessions, doing jobs like repairing furniture, cooking or painting walls.
“我们并不是做慈善,而是为人们提供公平机会,”阿德里安娜·埃伯利斯(Adriana Abeles)说,她是精神分析基金会(Fields of Psychoanalysis Foundation)的会长和创始人,这个基金会主要进行心理研究,培训精神分析专业的学生,提供心理治疗。在患者无力支付费用的时候,他们可以通过做义工来交换心理咨询,比如做修家具、做饭或刷墙这类活儿。
The country’s growing supply of psychologists also means that consumers have considerable bargaining power. While some of the top analysts here charge the equivalent of hundreds of dollars per session, many work on a sliding scale in accordance with their patients’ incomes, offering sessions for as little as $15 an hour.
阿根廷的心理学家日益增多,也意味着消费者有相当大的议价能力。尽管有些顶尖医生每次心理咨询要收取相当于几百美元的费用,不过许多医生还是会根据病人的收入灵活收费,咨询费用最低为每小时15美元。
Despite the continued boom in psychoanalysis, Argentina is not impervious to global treatment trends. Techniques like cognitive behavior therapy, which claim to offer shorter-term results, have gained ground here, and some health insurance plans frown upon the costs involved in drawn-out psychoanalytic counseling. Drug treatments have also made inroads, and some therapists in Argentina have expanded online offerings, turning to technologies like Skype.
虽然精神分析疗法依然盛行,不过阿根廷难免也会受到全球治疗趋势的影响。认知行为治疗等技术在阿根廷获得了生存的土壤,这种疗法宣称见效时间更短,而有些健康医疗保险计划不愿意涵盖长期精神分析咨询的费用。药物治疗也取得了进展,有些阿根廷治疗师增设了在线服务,通过Skype网络电话等技术提供咨询。
But Andrés Raskovsky, president of the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association, recently asserted that psychoanalysis had little risk of extinction in Argentina since seeing a psychologist twice a week is still viewed as being affordable for much of the population.
但是阿根廷心理学会(Argentine Psychoanalytic Association)主席安德烈·拉什科夫斯基(Andrés Raskovsky)近来表示,精神分析疗法在阿根廷几乎没有绝迹的危险,因为每周看两次心理医生,依然是大部分人能负担得起的花费。
Theories abound as to why hang-ups, and the professional class that treats them, seem to flourish here.
至于心理问题的原因及专业的治疗方法,各种理论比比皆是,依然在阿根廷非常盛行。
Martín, the main character in “Sidewalls,” a critically acclaimed 2011 romantic comedy about life in the shoe box apartments of Buenos Aires, offers this theory: “Apathy, depression, suicide, neuroses, panic attacks, obesity, fear of heights, muscular tension, insecurity, hypochondria, sedentary behavior — all are the fault of architects and construction entrepreneurs.” (Martín, of course, in a scene worthy of a Woody Allen film, professes to suffer from all of them “except for suicide,” and rarely leaves his high-rise building except to attend therapy.)
马丁(Martín)是阿根廷电影《在人海中遇见你》(Sidewalls)的主角,这部2011年上映的浪漫喜剧广受好评,讲述了人们在布宜诺斯艾利斯胶囊公寓中的生活,影片提出了下面这个理论:“冷漠、抑郁症、自杀、神经官能症、恐慌症、肥胖症、恐高症、肌肉紧张、精神不安、疑病症、久坐不起——这些是建筑师和建筑企业家造成的毛病。”(当然,出现在类似于伍迪·艾伦电影场景中的马丁宣称,他受到上述所有疾病的困扰,“唯独自杀例外”,他很少离开自己居住的高层住宅,只在接受心理治疗时出门。)
Others look to Argentina’s past for explanations, and not just the sadness bred by the faded glory of a nation that was once wealthier than many European ones.
其他人从阿根廷的历史中寻找解释,认为这跟这个国家的历史地位有关,阿根廷曾经比许多欧洲国家都要富裕,但昔日辉煌不再,因此让国民感到悲伤。
The country, some say, was long vulnerable to melancholia, or at least an acceptance of sharing those troubles with a patient listener. With its history of immigration, largely from Europe, Argentina has a tradition of drawing inspiration from European intellectual trends, including the rise of Freudian psychology a century ago. Spanish immigrants who sought opportunities away from the fascist rule of Francisco Franco were pivotal in establishing psychoanalysis in the 1940s as a respected profession in Argentina. Nowadays, some of the top psychoanalysts here are Jewish, most of them descendants of European Jews.
有些人说,这个国家长期受到抑郁症的影响,此外,阿根廷人普遍愿意向耐心的听众分享自己的烦恼。从移民历史来看,阿根廷的大部分居民来自欧洲,具有从欧洲思想趋势汲取灵感的传统,包括一个世纪前弗洛伊德心理学的兴起。20世纪40年代,为了寻找机会摆脱弗朗西斯科·佛朗哥(Francisco Franco)的法西斯统治,西班牙人移民到阿根廷,在把精神分析塑造成阿根廷受人尊敬的职业方面起到了重要作用。现在,阿根廷的一些顶级心理学家是犹太人,他们大多是欧洲犹太人的后裔。
Others have sought to tie the appeal of psychoanalysis to the nation’s music, like the tango, which can plumb decidedly dark themes. (There is even something here called “psychotango,” which explores the use of psychoanalytic thinking and dance as a tool for “self-transformation.”)
其他人把精神分析的吸引力归结于阿根廷的音乐,比如探戈,这种舞蹈显然能够探索黑暗的主题。(阿根廷甚至有称为“心理探戈”的学说,探讨把精神分析和舞蹈作为“自我转变”的手段。)
But Mariano Ben Plotkin, author of “Freud in the Pampas,” a book about the emergence of psychoanalysis in Argentina, said the reasons were much more complex. “Sure, we have the tango, but the Portuguese have the fado,” said Mr. Plotkin, referring to the mournful music of Portugal, a country with fewer psychologists per capita.
但是,马里亚诺·本·普洛特金(Mariano Ben Plotkin)认为原因要复杂得多,他的著作《潘帕斯草原的弗洛伊德》(Freudin the Pampas)讲述了精神分析学在阿根廷的兴起。“当然,我们有探戈,不过葡萄牙人也有法多”,普洛特金说,法多是葡萄牙的悲歌,而这个国家人均拥有的心理医生比阿根廷少得多。
Instead, Mr. Plotkin, whose own parents sent him to a psychoanalyst several times a week when he was a child, attributes the rise of psychoanalysis in Argentina partly to its reception by a large, relatively well-educated middle class in the 1960s.
在普洛特金小时候,他的父母每周都会带他看几次精神分析专家,精神分析在阿根廷大行其道,一方面要归功于20世纪60年代大量受过良好教育的中产阶级对心理学的接受。
Despite the rise of rival treatments, Mr. Plotkin said he remained sanguine about what he called the “hegemonic” position of psychoanalysis in Argentina’s psychological community. After all, ordinary Argentines readily employ psychological terms that in other countries would be the preserve of psychology majors, and can hold forth on the difference of Freudian and Jungian methods.
普洛特金说,尽管出现了其他治疗方法,他依然对精神分析在阿根廷心理学界占有“垄断”地位感到乐观。毕竟,连普通阿根廷人都可以轻松地运用心理学术语,滔滔不绝地谈论弗洛伊德和荣格(Jung)理论的差异,而这在其他国家是心理学专业人士的专利。
Respect for psychoanalysis extends to other realms as well. It is embedded in various state institutions; parents of children at public schools, upon being asked to attend meetings regarding their child’s behavior, for instance, are sometimes surprised to learn that one of first discussions is with a psychoanalyst employed by the school system.
人们对于心理学的尊重延伸到了其他领域。心理学深入到不同的国家机构;比如,公立学校学生的家长会受邀参加会议,评估孩子的行为,有时候家长会惊讶地得知,他们首先要做的是和学校聘请的心理学家进行初步讨论。
And in a sign of its wide acceptance, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her cabinet chief took time out in April to meet with leaders of the World Psychoanalysis Association, which was convening then in Buenos Aires.
作为广泛接受心理学的标志,2012年4月份,阿根廷总统克里斯蒂娜·费尔南德斯·德基什内尔(Cristina Fernández de Kirchner)和她的内阁部长抽出时间,会见了世界精神分析学会(World Psychoanalysis Association)的领导人,当时他们正在布宜诺斯艾利斯召开会议。
Opening a newspaper or cultural supplement here often feels like leafing through decades-old editions of The New Yorker, when cartoons were drenched in psychoanalytic jargon.
打开阿根廷的报纸或文化副刊,感觉就像翻阅几十年前的《纽约客》(The New Yorker) 杂志,上面的漫画充斥着精神分析术语。
Diego Sehinkman, a psychologist who writes a weekly column for the newspaper La Nación in which he describes imaginary therapy sessions with politicians across the spectrum, said: “We are fascinated in Argentina with peering into the suffering of people in power. Especially those who have made us suffer a bit.”
心理学家迭戈·赛因克曼(Diego Sehinkman)每周为阿根廷《国民报》(La Nación)撰写专栏文章,描写形形色色的政治家接受虚构的心理咨询治疗的情景,他说,“我们阿根廷人喜欢看到位高权重的人饱受折磨,尤其是那些让我们遭受痛苦的人。”