Pope Francis Sought Psychoanalysis at 42, According to Book
1, 2017
ROME — At 42, Pope Francis had weekly sessions with a psychoanalyst for about six months "to clarify some things,"
according to excerpts from a new book by a French sociologist scheduled to be published next week.
"She was a good person." The pontiff also highly praised the influence of "true women" in his life, including his grandmothers, his mother and the communist Esther Ballestrino de Careaga, founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo movement in Argentina, who demanded
that the military dictatorship reveal the fate of disappeared children.
"I feel free," Francis was quoted as saying.
"She taught me how to think politics," Francis stated, specifying that he is not a communist, as he has often been accused, but a Christian.
Vatican analysts noted that Francis, who is now 80, was a Jesuit official in Argentina
at the time, when the country was ruled by a military dictatorship.
The revelation came in one of a series of 12 interviews the sociologist, Dominique Wolton, conducted with the pope at the Vatican for the book.
