Intrecci fra oggetti umani e mondo non umano in un’ottica psicodinamica

Mythical narration has always enjoyed mixing human with non human. Jove who changes into a swan. The Minotaur half man and half bull. The mystery of this union is so fascinating that artists and poets, across time have given us and continue to give us images of this mixture. From Dante to Magritte, up to Camilleri. So much so that we are tempted to ask ourselves if there really is such a net separation between human and non-human. If a landscape, for example, is only the background within which a piece of our existence takes place. Actually many of the inanimate objects that accompany us during life have an emotionally significant role. Winnicott, through the transitional object, tells us about our profound connection with the inanimate world at the beginning of life. Searles does the same in his work with psychotic patients. He maintains that relationships with the non human open the way to human relationships. Occupational therapists know that the non human is the very essence of their profession. In many patients the doing appears at first as something raw and disorganized. Which little by little becomes a form through the use of hands, enriched with thoughts, memories, emotions that can be shared with the therapist. In today’s world we are struck by the superabundance of objects that surround us. Which we throw away with ease. Or else accumulate in order to fill in the absence of the human.

Keywords: Human, non human, separation, attachment, void

Carolina de Sena Gibertoni, Intrecci fra oggetti umani e mondo non umano in un’ottica psicodinamica in "RUOLO TERAPEUTICO (il)" 113/2010, pp 36-51, DOI: 10.3280/RT2010-113004