Off the Couch

A dark leather couch faces forward; behind it, a matching leather chair. A sleek metallic lamp droops over two people, one seated, one lying down. Both face the same way. A psychoanalyst’s office? Well, almost: the wash of industrial, shadow-proof lighting and bright background necessary for live television broadcasting dilute the psychoanalytic clinic’s typically somber and intimate ambience. Gabriel Rolón, undoubtedly Argentina’s most famous psychoanalyst, sits in the chair with a clipboard but no pencil or pen, and in each hour-long episode, a rotating cast of Argentine celebrities subject themselves to his trained analytic ear in front of a battalion of TV cameras. Crass, but effective. Don’t mind the studio audience: free associate!