The re-emergence of the past, in a psychopathological experience, may adopt the features of an experienced persecution, as represented by Mnemon, witness of the failure of a hero in Ancient Greece. At the height of the delusional experience, and from the depth of the well of memory, the mirror image of a double can emerge, as an unattainable ideal ego, incorruptible and timeless. Ideal ego which reveals a fault and triggers feelings of guilt and shame. This is what happens in the unfinished novel written by Henry James, "A sense of the past". The main character is imprisoned by his own fascination for the old house inherited in London. The past in this novel is materialized by the portrait of a person depicted from the back. When the main character finally meets the man in the painting, he recognizes his own appearance in the man’s face.
Keywords: Re-emergence of the past, mnemic cramp, delusion, experience of the double, pathological narcissism

Ettore Straticò, Stefania Forconi, Enrico Vernizzi, Cristina Benazzi, Filippo Nocini, Treatment of infanticide mothers in a forensic psychiatric hospital in Italy. Case study of ten patients in "RIVISTA SPERIMENTALE DI FRENIATRIA" 3/2012, pp. 125-134, DOI:10.3280/RSF2012-003008