Dr. Alberto Buscaglia is the chief psychiatrist of the Borda Hospital in Buenos Aires in charge of Antonio Portet, the former sailor committed after what befell him beneath the islands.
| Type | Character (psychiatrist) |
| Era | 1966 |
| Place | Borda Hospital, Buenos Aires |
| Other spellings | Bustamia, Buscamia |
| Spanish entry | Dr. Alberto Buscaglia |
Description
Gray-haired, calm and somewhat unkempt. Antonio’s illness is a declared madness without end, sown by what sleeps at the bottom of the southern sea. The records waver over his surname (Bustamia, Buscamia); Buscaglia prevailed.
Treatment
He holds that Antonio’s attacks are inevitable as long as Antonio does not face his deepest fear: there is no cure by avoidance. He combines talk therapy with “experimental instances”: directed hypnosis, insulin therapy (induced comas, used in those years) and shock therapy understood as deliberate approach to the fear. He endorses Antonio’s companions accompanying him and pushing him to act.
A licentiate, Falkowski, tells Antonio in group therapy to “let the emotion out”. Under this regime Antonio finally wields the axe, puts his lost compass into words and recovers a measure of reason.
See also
- Operativo Cóndor — the diverted 1966 flight that led to Antonio’s commitment
- Esoteric Order of Dagon — the batrachian brotherhood at the root of the illness, which Buscaglia treats unknowingly