Néstor Falkowski is a young licensed therapist at the Borda Hospital in Buenos Aires in 1966, assistant to Dr. Alberto Buscaglia. His group-therapy instruction to “get the emotion out” unblocked Antonio Portet, and his true allegiance remains unclear.
| Type | Character (therapist) |
| Era | 1966 |
| Place | Borda Hospital, Buenos Aires |
| Superior | Dr. Alberto Buscaglia |
| Spanish entry | Lic. Néstor Falkowski — el terapeuta de párpados pesados |
Description
Twenty-five or thirty years old at most and fresh out of university, Falkowski works in the ward where Antonio, the former sailor committed after what happened to him beneath the islands, is treated. He has heavy eyelids and a gaze that is hard to read. His Polish surname echoes that of Irene Kowalski, though nothing links them beyond the sound.
Therapy
In group therapy he tells Antonio to “sacar la emoción” (“get the emotion out”): not to name or circle his fear but to discharge it bodily. “Sacá tu emoción. No la guardes: descargala” (“Get your emotion out. Don’t keep it: unload it”). The technique unblocked Antonio where talk had stalled; he managed to wield the axe, put his lost compass into words and recover part of his reason.
Favors
- He has a friend in the air force in Córdoba and is openly uneasy about the repression falling on young people in those years.
- He signs Antonio’s health booklet, a vacation alibi covering what the sailor cannot declare.
- He hands his university library card to one of the group’s women investigators, who seduces him to get it. Which of the women it was is not recorded.
Open questions
- Whether he is merely a kind-hearted therapist with good contacts or something else (an agent, a sleeper serving an unseen master, possibly linked to the Esoteric Order of Dagon) is left unresolved.