Simona Argentieri on Psychoanalysis, Art, and the Future

In an interview with Spazio Taverna, psychoanalyst Simona Argentieri (born 1940, Florence) discusses the relationship between psychoanalysis, language, and art. She describes herself as an 'omnivore' of culture, citing Mondrian's help in understanding abstraction and a late-18th-century anonymous painting of the Holy Family that inspired her book 'Il padre materno.' Her most representative project explores multilingualism in psychoanalysis, examining how speaking a non-native language can both defend against and access childhood neurotic suffering, leading to studies on émigré analysts and writers like Nabokov, Canetti, and Beckett. She emphasizes the importance of the past in shaping personality but refrains from predictions, preferring 'retroactive prophecies.' On post-truth, she focuses on intrapsychic falsehoods rather than intentional lies. She declines to offer future predictions, advocating instead for mobilizing conscious ego forces. The interview is part of Spazio Taverna's 'Futuro Antico' series.