2011 Programme
Evento n.15
Adam Phillips, Gabriele Romagnoli
About balance
The problem of balance, of measure, of avoiding excess is central to our lives. We aspire to achieve and maintain equilibrium, but whenever something seems important to us we tend to lose our balance, much as we do when falling in love. Phillips shows that the most appropriate way to discuss balance consists in dealing with the various forms that excess and exaggeration take on in our society, including sex, education, and religious and political fundamentalism. Psychoanalysis plays a central role here as it can show us ‘why there is often nothing more imbalanced than demanding a well-balanced viewpoint.’ A reversal of the common perspective that is so characteristic of Adam Phillips, who is constantly riding the fine line between psychoanalysis and literature, Freudian references and artistic suggestions.
born in 1954, is a British psychoanalyst and a man of letters. He has edited the complete works of Sigmund Freud in the U.K. He was head of Child Psychotherapy at London’s Charing Cross Hospital, and has authored a number of essays. An unusual intellectual of many eclectic interests (including tropical birds), Phillips never appears on tv, but partly owing to a few prominent patients, including the fiction writer Hanif Kureishi, he has become a sort of hallowed ‘psycho-star,’ so much so that The Times has dubbed him ‘the Martin Amis of psychoanalysis.’ His essays, published in Italian by Ponte alle Grazie, deal with a broad range of subjects and uncover poorly known and elusive dimensions of our psyche. They include I lombrichi di Darwin e la morte di Freud (2000), Paure ed esperti (2003), Normalmente (2005), Elogio della gentilezza (with B. Taylor, 2009), La scatola di Houdini (2010), Sull’equilibrio (2011), Sul bacio, il solletico e la noia (2011).
Evento n.6
Zygmunt Bauman
Reflections on the notions of community and network, on social networks and Facebook
Evento n.14
Gian Carlo Calza
Different, eccentric, extraordinary: aesthetics and creativity between Asia and the West
Evento n.26
Franco Borgogno
In other people’s hearts and minds. A psychoanalyst between tradition and creativity
Evento n.37
Sonia Bergamasco, Fabrizio Gifuni
A quiet sunny day. Attilio Bertolucci and Pier Paolo Pasolini, a friendship in verse
