Life and pain in the art of the psychotherapist. An interview to Umberto Galimberti

This interview touches important issues of contemporary clinics, following Spagnuolo Lobb’s provocations inspired to gestalt therapy and Galimberti’s precise answers, inspired by Junghian philosophy. Issues like the role and the experience of the psychotherapist are seen in the context of post-modern society, with the problems that psychotherapists treat in this "still" (not liquid) society (various kind of addictions, like internet addictions, facebook, economic crisis). Like an artist, the psychotherapist needs to be aware of his own possibilities and of the specific instruments of his method. He has to be aware of his own madness, in order to help others’ madness, to be aware of his own pain in order to see the others’ pain, to be sensitive to his/her own sensations and emotions, in order to be sensitive to others’ ones. Important as well is the need that the psychotherapist saves himself from "contamination" from his clients’ illness.

Keywords: Esthetic values, desensitization, post-modern society, nihilism, objectivation

Lobb Margherita Spagnuolo, La vita e il dolore nell’arte dello psicoterapeuta. Intervista a Umberto Galimberti in "QUADERNI DI GESTALT" 1/2010, pp 15-33, DOI: 10.3280/GEST2010-001002