Spiriti e fantasmi in dialogo con i viventi, introduzione

[Autom. eng. transl.] In the last few decades the theme of eternity and the resurrection of the dead have entered the scene of the psychoanalysis and of the family therapy: eternity with the extension of care beyond the limits of infinite times; the resurrection with the increasingly frequent phenomenon of the return of the ancestors among their descendants, both in their dreams, and through the same diseases of the body that affect the living as they had once struck the ancestors. The thesis of the book is that the returning dead are not a projection of the surviving descendant, but an autonomous presence that returns in order to say what it has to say; the main reason for this journey is the claim, which starts from the inattention, from indifference, from the carelessness of the living for the funeral honors that the dead expect and demand. The cure will therefore not pass through the feelings of shame and guilt of the survivors, but will build on their forgotten acts of love and mercy - a prayer, a flower, a silent conversation - able to pay off the debts contracted and to convince the ancestors to remain at peace in the afterlife. The research material is based on the presentation and discussion of conversations with patients, but also on references to the classical poetic and theatrical tradition, from Homer to Aeschylus to Seneca. The book is also enriched by a valuable introduction by Vittorio Cigoli, which extends the interest of the theme of eternity and the resurrection of the dead to clinical family research, highlighting the presence of factors common to psychoanalysis and to family therapy for care and reconciliation of the bonds between the living and the souls.