During a recent trip to Argentina, I was talking with an old friend, a successful psychiatrist, about Jorge Luis Borges, the famous Argentine writer. She told me about the only time she had met him: “I had gone to a lecture by Borges at a cultural center in Buenos Aires. I was a 14-year-old student planning to study literature at the university and become a writer, and Borges was a hero to me.
“I was enraptured by Borges’s strong personality. However, there was a big discrepancy between his physical appearance and the quality of his speech. I saw him as an old man who looked very tired—a sensation increased by the poor lighting in the place—but the magic of his words transported me to another world, the world of the imagination.
“After the lecture, I decided that I wouldn’t study literature, since I would never be able to write like him. On my way out, there were several books on sale. On an impulse, I bought a book called ‘Psychosomatic Medicine,’ by Eric Wittkower and Hector Warnes. I was so taken by it that after reading it, I decided to become a psychiatrist, a decision I never regretted. I can truly say that although I saw Borges only that one time, he dramatically changed my life.”
