Marx is dead, Freud is dead and finally Matilde “Walk lightly”. This line, from a poem by William Butler Yeats, is the title of the first novel by Maria Chiara Risoldi, a well-known Bolognese psychoanalyst who, on the threshold of old age, has decided to move on, abandon the cot and become a writer. However, it was not a matter of turning over any sheet, but of overcoming almost forty years of therapies that accompanied her life as an adult, between those made as a patient and those conducted as an analyst. The short novel, released in September 2022 and written with an incisive and dry pen, takes its cue from one of the great mourning of his real biographical journey, the death of his brother, which breaks into his soul like a hurricane, overturning beliefs, past and finally making her see the “film” from the beginning in a new light. The criticism of psychoanalysis Freudianism is implacable (even if not necessarily acceptable), but Risoldi accepts the risk of throwing the baby out with the bathwater in order to plunge the knife into his truth, even if obviously not everyone likes this. “A review of my book, which had been featured on the SPI website for a year, was removed – he says – because they realized that my words were too critical of Freud. I would call this censorship."
We do not know what is the reason that prompted the Italian psychoanalytic society (the only one authorized to put the "o" in the middle - not psychoanalysis but psychoanalysis - to distinguish itself from imitations) to remove the review from the site, however, we know that Risoldi's words can do a lot of harm to Freudian orthodoxy, above all because they come from a member of the small group, from a person who has completed the entire, very long process needed to become SPI therapists: a degree in psychiatry or psychology, a personal analysis and a didactic analysis, a journey without a clock because what matters is to plumb the unconscious in every aspect, to shed light where it is dark.
A liberating journey without discounts for oneself and for others
For Maria Chiara that long liberating journey turned into the perfect prison. As the protagonist of her book says, Matilde, an “authentically false” person emerged, true only with his patients. From this sudden awareness to hang up the Oedipus complex the step was short (for the author and for her alter ego) also because the doubts had been maturing for years, from the time of a dazzling experience in Bosnia with traumatized people from the war.
On the other hand, if we had to give a title to the political and professional iter of Risoldi and her husband, Antonio La Forgia (former PCI manager, president of the Emilia-Romagna Region and parliamentarian, founder of the Democratic Party and finally Renziano) we would choose " short story of two heretics”.
Deep sedation for the last journey of no return
The latest heresy of this woman and of this brilliant, intelligent and courageous couple dates back to less than a year ago, when Antonio, terminally ill with cancer, chose the sedation deep for his last journey. A path permitted by law only when it was running out, the descent into limbo which for La Forgia lasted about four days, from Monday evening to Friday, with the morphine drop by drop flowing through the veins together with the hydration liquids, with a chilling and brief awakening halfway through, until the inevitable epilogue the 10 June 2022. A political act narrated by Maria Chiara on Facebook, to raise debate around the important question of the end of life.
“I think that deep sedation is assisted suicide which, however, saves face for a hypocritical, Catholic country, because that is where the crux lies – Risoldi told the local newspapers – Pain is a matter to be treated in a Catholic way, it is expiation and must be accepted with resignation". A resignation that does not suit this combative and tenacious woman of whom we will soon read other counter-current pages. In fact, his is outgoing “…of struggle and care”. new novel freely inspired by the Women's House of Bologna, to which the copyright will be devolved.
