After an introductory note, Claudio Magris remembers Tito Perlini (1931-2013), one of the most interesting Italian philosophers and expert of contemporary German thought. Then a paper by Tito Perlini, originally published in issue no. 3/1980 of Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane and titled "The sacred and the technique", is reprinted. The following are some of the issues discussed by Tito Perlini: the tension toward the sacred as a reaction to the disenchantment created by the world’s rationalization; the current forms of irrationalism accompanying the "scientism" as technocratic ideology; the cultural degradation and its consequences on the inner world of the individual, who, due to his impotence, is tempted to take refuge in regressive behaviors (substance abuse, affiliation to sects that promise salvation); the danger that psychoanalysis becomes a pedagogical exercise or, worse, a technique of salvation.
Keywords: Sacred, technocratic ideology, scientism, rationalization of the world, irrationalism