Analysis of the article La parola di Gesù sul lettino di Freud by Massimo Recalcati

The text that I have to analyze is an article written by Massimo Recalcati and it is taken from the newspaper Repubblica, published on the 14th of January 2013.

The title of the text is La parola di Gesù sul lettino di Freud, so the reader can expect the text will be about religion, psychoanalysis and the connection between these two disciplines; such expectations is created by the names Gesù and Freud.

Considering the lay-out the article may be arranged into three parts.

The first part deals with the presentation of Francoise Dolto, her book and her religious position. Massimo Recalcati starts his article speaking about the book I Vangeli alla luce della psicoanalisi and he states that it is a jewel; so the reader may expect a positive point of view about the book, the writer of the book and writer’s thought. The journalist makes this affirmation for two reason:  the book was written by Francoise Dolto, who was a great psychoanalyst in Recalcati’s opinion, and she thought only as a psychoanalyst, focusing her attention not to the religion but to the direct interpretation of the Gospel.

Francoise Dolto was a psychoanalyst, a friend and a scholar of Jacques Lacan, she studied the human beings , focusing her attention to their childhood, adolescence and the importance of the parents in children’s education. Besides she was Christian but she had never hidden her Christianity and this event is very strange because her mentors were Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. It is important to remember that Freud argued that the religious man is blinded from a narcissistic illusion, therefore religious people think that what cannot be explain is due to God, who is eternal and absolute.

The second part of the text deals with the theme of desire and some parables about the theme considered. Francoise Dolto agreed with Jesus’ opinion about desire; he states that it has a great power and people have to accept it and try to achieve it: desire is not egoism and therefore sin, if you does not try to impose on the others your desire. After this consideration Massimo Recalcati quotes the parable of the Good Samaritan, who helps the others (“prossimo”), but does not want to get something, his actions are disinterested. Francoise Dolto overturns the interpretation of the parable, stating that the Good Samaritan coincides with “prossimo”; people have to love him and so Christian love is not a refuge or an illusion. Another parable considered is the parable of the Prodigal Son, who left his dad but then returns home because he spent all his money and is repented. Also here Francoise Dolto overturns the interpretation making some psychoanalytical considerations. The Prodigal Son accepts the Law of Separation and decides to become a young man leaving his home. So he is in the sin less than his brother who stays at home with his father. Afterwards there were other parables which restate that you have to achieve your desire.

The third part of the text is the conclusion in that Massimo Recalcati synthesizes the most important concepts: the Christian culture is not a refuge or an illusion but it concerns with reality and so with death, sex, sickness and pain.