Attajar Academy
Psychoanalysis and desire
A few days ago, I saw a quote posted by my psychoanalyst, Yoany Rendón, that referred to Dante Alighieri: “I did not fall from heaven…! I rose from hell!” It reminded me of a part of my life story. Says Juan José Martínez, founder of Attajar Academy.
Like many, “I also lived and grew up in a difficult neighbourhood.’ I have dreamed and had plans since childhood. ‘And likewise, like many, I have also taken it upon myself to sabotage those plans” (…) “It is difficult to understand what is behind all this. It is easier to plan, start, destroy, complain and start again. Without wanting to know”. There were projects from the university and others that were filled with “problems” rather than “solutions”.
“The same was true in other aspects of life, such as relationships. There, too, I sabotaged, destroyed what I had achieved, and started again.” In other words, those aspects in which a person could feel triumphant, on the way to achieving what they desire.
Juan’s words remind us of what Freud proposed, as cases “in which men become ill with triumph” (Freud, 2012, p. 324). Accepting the loss of their enjoyment, they “prolong their own fulfilment in symptomatic repetition, where they always experience the distancing of the fulfilment of their desire” (Cosenza, 2024, p. 209).
In sabotage directed at what has been achieved. The person unconsciously works to undo what has been achieved because something is imposed on them. Something that prevents them from “extracting the long-awaited benefit from that happy objective change” (Freud, 2012, p. 325).
“Turning this situation around was made possible, first of all, thanks to my encounter with psychoanalysis. And, from then on, thanks to other hands that reached out to help me consolidate this project, which, unlike the previous ones, has everything to do with the birth of my daughter and my commitment to my family”.
Juan José mentions that, like many others, he did not have a father. However, Attajar Academy, his invention, will “allow the stories his daughter tells in the future to be those of a- father who worked hard for his desire and the well-being of his family.’
‘Psychoanalysis taught me something that one thinks is basic, but which is not at all. And that is that, because of desire, one has to work. That, in the end, it is oneself who forbids oneself things.’ Juan says he did not have a meaningful job in his previous projects. “Something I also came to realise thanks to psychoanalysis”.
The word Attajar, from the Proto-Indo-European atta, is of Germanic-Gothic-Greek origin. It means: Father, ancestor, as that which unites. As for the invention, Juan says, “this is the symbolic part that I did not have until I encountered psychoanalysis.”
Attajar, in the context of his invention, is the verb that describes the action performed by goalkeepers in football. At his academy, he wants to give children and young people the opportunity to continue dreaming of a life in sport.
His goal also extends far beyond that, as he invites them not only to see football as a way to continue dreaming. He also wants to help enrich other aspects of their lives. He wants them to know that there are alternative paths each can find according to their desires.
Attajar Academy is a place where children and young people come together through sport, where they can find something more that gives rise to their dreams, with their families also part of it. In December 2025, they will have their first holiday camp, where they will continue to forge this path through football. In January 2026, Attajar Academy will officially open its doors to welcome people from all over the world.
______________________________________
Cosenza, D. (2024). Clínica del exceso. Xoroi Edicions.
Freud, S. (2012). Algunos tipos de carácter dilucidados por el trabajo psicoanalítico (1916). In Sigmund Freud Obras Completas XIV. (1914-1916). Amorrortu Editores.
