The mental weight of dehumanization

I want to ask for your forgiveness. Sorry because today I don’t want to feign dementia and embrace the passion for ignorance.

We live in a time where cruelty is manifested in all its splendor. Politics as a tool destined to seek the common good has been transformed into an instrument at the service of an apparatus that has cruelty as its core.

One of the phrases coined by the current administration is “There is NO MONEY…” is an atrocious lie. There is a lot of money, our country is rich, the problem is the redistribution of income. Few have much and many have little. Argentina is one of the first countries in the world in food production. It produces food for more than 400 million people. In contrast, more than seven million girls and boys live in poverty. Every day, one million girls and boys go to bed without dinner in the country, according to a study published by UNICEF. The study also shows that some 10 million girls and boys in Argentina eat less meat and dairy compared to last year.just a sample of the current misery in which many families live and we all know the disastrous consequences that all this has on the physical and psychological development of boys and girls. It will take three generations to recover the cognitive capacity of these generations.

We live in a new pandemic, the pandemic of hate. This does not allow the other to be accommodated, it sweeps away the feelings of love, empathy and humanity. The well-being of all is not built from hatred. We will take some textual sayings to show the empyrea of ​​hate speech; “we came to shrink the State to increase your pockets”; “They will be able to design the dismissal system they want”; “There are other priorities”; “If people didn’t make ends meet they would have died by now, let’s say” and “The food is no longer in the warehouses.” I could go on and on… but there is something that summarizes the guidelines of this way of doing politics and it is the sinister slogan recently coined that originated in the last military dictatorship: “Shrinking the state is enlarging the nation.”

We witness with horror the destruction of part of our constitutional rights, the destruction of education, public health and research. To the veto and repression of retirees. The vetoed pension improvement only implied 0.45% of the GDP and the veto of the University Financing Law, which according to the ACIJ represents only 0.14% of the GDP. Everything stated is the factual demonstration of the existence of policies of cruelty. They have worked hard so that in a country rich in food production there are more hungry people. They have worked hard to take away our constitutional rights. Today more than half of Argentines are poor. This is shown by the official economic data recently released by INDEC. The study reflects that poverty reached 52.9% in the first half of 2024, which represents an increase of 11 points compared to the second half of last year.

This is a product of the crazed and cruel search to achieve cemetery deficit and inflation.

It is also necessary to point out that the pandemic of hate and the policies of cruelty does not only concern our country. The entire world is the scene of atrocious wars, the media, with networks in a prominent place, flood us with terrible images of bombings of hospitals, schools, and entire cities devastated. Refugee camps are multiplying everywhere. Racism has increased. Old disputes between countries, groups have found fertile ground to develop. Once again, hatred prevailing over any possibility of dialogue.

So, why does a psychoanalyst talk about these things? simply because there is no clinic without context. We are better mental health professionals if we do not feign dementia and take into account the times in which we live or, as Freud would say, “the discomfort of the times in which we live.” Let’s underline the word discomfort. Today we are faced with an adverse reality, a reality that demands of us psychically. The increase in suicide, addictions, and different forms of illness have become daily occurrences. We talk about this when we talk about the discomfort of the times in which we live.

All this cruelty is beginning to have its downside. According to the opinion study “Scandal, indignation, media & politics”, 92.2% assure that the increase in poverty is the main issue of unrest, considering it the most serious of what is happening in Argentina. We also see solidarity growing among young people and the foundations of many companies are trying to alleviate hunger and desperation. In addition, there is growing concern about the redistribution of wealth. All this marks a growing concern for the other. Let’s hope that these are signs that we are getting involved and that we can tame this dehumanization. Simply because it is devastating for the singular and collective psyche.

Finally, the future appears diffuse and complex, but expanded and new. There will be times of a lot of subjective work to live up to this new time. Let’s always bet on the word. It is the word that heals us and frees us from the slavery of the passion for ignorance. We know that gaining true margins of freedom is therapeutic.

Let’s build a world where diversity is sustained. Where the word is not used as a weapon to devastate the other. What we frequently see on the networks and in the current administration. Diversity is no longer an idealization, it is clearly the only possibility we have if we want to survive as a species.

There is no mental health possible if we sustain cruelty and dehumanization.

Psychoanalyst. Bachelor of Psychological Sciences (UBA). Specialist in Clinical Psychology (MSAL). Former president and founding member of the Argentine Mental Health Association (AASM). Founder and Coordinator of the Evening Day Hospital, Mental Health Division of the General Acute Hospital Dr. T. Álvarez (GCBA). Life member of the Word Federation for Mental Health (WFMH). Author of publications and books in the field of Mental Health.