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The Right to be Expressed: Neurodivergence, University, and Resilience in Present-Day Argentina

Publication Date: 22/04/2026 - Author: Sandra Hernandez

Publication Number: 2042026 - Type: Essay

Editor[s]: Laura Linberga

At a kitchen table in Río Gallegos, in the heart of Argentine Patagonia, a mother of four watches her youngest son. He begins to move his hands in a rhythmic, "flapping" motion—an action that to the untrained eye might seem like a mere distraction, but for him, it is a lifeline: a way to self-regulate when the outside world becomes too loud for his senses. In an ideal context, this family would have an interdisciplinary support team. However, in present-day Argentina, where the healthcare system groans under the weight of crisis, this mother acts out of pure, intuitive love. She asks him to rub his arms, transforming the stereotype into a conscious contact with his own body.

This scene is not an isolated incident; it is a portrait of the silent resistance occurring in thousands of households. It is here that the question of communication becomes urgent: what happens when words are not enough? How do we guarantee the right to expression in a context that seems hell-bent on silence?

Art as Language in the Face of Mystery

My own approach to Art Therapy was not born in a classroom, but from a profound personal fracture. After navigating a deep crisis, I discovered that art possesses a therapeutic capacity that rational logic sometimes ignores. This revelation led me to the ideas of Carl Jung, who maintained that "the hands will often find a way to solve a mystery that the intellect has tried in vain to fathom."

Jung did not view art as a recreational activity, but as a "transcendent function": a bridge that allows the contents of the unconscious to become visible and, therefore, processable. For a child on the autism spectrum, a brush or a piece of clay are not just tools; they are primary communication channels. In an environment where verbal language can be a barrier, a smudge of colour or a molded shape becomes the cry or the caress that could not find its way out. However, for this bridge to be crossable, something more than brushes is needed: a social framework to sustain it.

The Gap: Well-being as a Privilege

It is impossible to discuss mental health in Argentina today without mentioning the growing gap in accessibility. We find ourselves in a climate of polarisation where neurodivergence has become an object of political debate and even attacks from the highest echelons of power. While the press is flooded with demands for specialised care, economic reality dictates a cruel sentence: alternative therapies and Art Therapy workshops have become consumer goods.

If a family has the means, they access the therapeutic space; if not, they are left to the "intuition" I mentioned earlier. This exclusion not only affects the individual development of the child but also erodes the social fabric. Mental health should not be subject to market laws, especially when we are talking about children who need to be validated in their difference.

Psychopedagogy: A Science with a National Identity

Faced with this void, Psychopedagogy emerges—a discipline that has both its cradle and its own identity in Argentina. Born to respond to phenomena that neither medicine nor classical pedagogy could resolve—such as school failure or disability—this science focuses on the subject in a learning situation.

As the prominent Argentine scholar Alicia Fernández proposed, learning is not a mere accumulation of data, but a "staging of desire." One does not learn only with the brain; one learns with the body, with history, and with the other. When a child is excluded from the system because of how they process the world, what is being wounded is their desire to know. Therefore, my decision to begin a degree in Psychopedagogy was not a coincidence, but a necessity to professionalise that therapeutic and social gaze that the country demands.

The Public University as a Beacon of Inclusion

Despite austerity policies, the Argentine public university remains the space where theory is transformed into a policy of care. Institutions such as the National University of the Southern Patagonia (UNPA) carry out programmes that are true examples of best practices. They do not limit themselves to the classrooms; they reach out to the community through the training of human resources in home care, mental health, and inclusive education.

These diplomas and training programmes do not just prepare technical professionals; they democratise knowledge so that elder care and disability support stop being solitary tasks and become collective responsibilities. This will for openness is crystallised in Article 7 of our Higher Education Law (24.521). This deeply democratic regulation allows individuals over 25 who have not finished high school to enter the university if they demonstrate prior experience and knowledge. It is the legal recognition that learning is a continuous process and that life itself grants a "preparation" that the academy must honour.

Conclusion: Toward a Community that Embraces Difference

I write these lines because I firmly believe that democratising access to well-being is an act of social justice. My project of a therapeutic notebook for neurodivergence and my future practice as a psychopedagogue share the same north star: that no mother in Patagonia, nor in any corner of the world, should have to improvise her child's well-being in solitude due to a lack of resources.

Mental health and inclusive education must stop being elite commodities and return to being fundamental human rights. Only when we ensure that the "intuition" of families is backed by trained professionals and open universities can we say that we are building a truly humane society—one where every "flutter" is understood for what it is: a unique way of being in the world.

Bibliography

Fernández, A. (2004). La inteligencia atrapada: abordaje psicopedagógico clínico y psicopedagógico. Nueva Visión. (Key reference for the psychopedagogical approach).

Higher Education Law No. 24,521. (1995). Honorable Congress of the Argentine Nation. Official Gazette of the Argentine Republic. (Specifically Article 7, regarding university admission for individuals over 25).

Jung, C. G. (1964). Man and His Symbols. Doubleday. (Reference for the Art Therapy approach).

National University of Southern Patagonia (UNPA). University Extension Programs: Training in Home Care and Inclusive Education. Retrieved from institutional guidelines.

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