BUENOS AIRES — The cafe, just north of a leafy district affectionately nicknamed Villa Freud, was almost empty. Roberto Álvarez sipped his espresso, furrowed his brow and began ticking off the names of psychologists he had seen over the past decade. He stopped counting only when he noticed that he was running short of fingers.

“Let me tell you something about us Argentines,” said Mr. Álvarez, a 51-year-old construction worker, after a tangent on Jacques Lacan, the famous French psychoanalyst who sometimes conducted sessions with patients in taxicabs. “When it comes to choosing a psychologist, we are like women searching for the perfect perfume. We try a bit of this and a bit of that before eventually arriving at the right fit.”

Indeed, Argentines often manage a smile upon hearing that psychoanalysis has been on the wane in the United States and other countries, rivaled by treatments that offer shorter-term and often cheaper results than years invested in sessions of soul-searching. Even as Argentines grapple with high inflation and an economic slowdown, many seem to know precisely what they want (at least in one area of their lives): psychoanalysis, and plenty of it.

The number of practicing psychologists in Argentina has been surging, to 196 per 100,000 people last year, according to a study by Modesto Alonso, a psychologist and researcher, from 145 per 100,000 people in 2008. That compares with about 27 psychologists per 100,000 people in the United States, according to the American Psychological Association.