“How could I have been so stupid?”. Symbolic impoverishment and the question of ideals

Journal title PSICOANALISI
Author/s Gregorio Kohon
Publishing Year 2023 Issue 2023/1
Language Italian Pages 23 P. 53-75 File size 281 KB
DOI 10.3280/PSI2023-001004
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The original interest in symbols developed by Freud and his early colleagues came to be superseded by the interest in the symbolic function of the mind. Later still, the emphasis was displaced to the question of symbolization as a process. Symbolic impoverishment is a specific intellectual inhibition, where integration and synthesis of thought have not been achieved. Part of normal development, the concept conveys the vicissitudes of human imagination and intelli-gence, their potential successes and failures. It is argued that different forms of stupidity are always part of this process. We can be fairly certain that everyone has lamented, sooner or later, “How could I have been so stupid?” Mostly asked in jest, this should be considered seriously, as a humbling question, addressed as much to myself as to others. At some level, it represents a genuine confession, an acknowl-edgement of the stupidity of which we are all aware, from which we all suffer. It belongs to a continuum, comparable to what we accept in psychoanalysis as the ones between neurosis and perversion, sanity and madness, maturity and immaturity. Stupidity exists, whether we like it or not, in different intensities in different individuals. Being intelligent or knowledgeable does not preclude it.

Keywords: symbolic impoverishment, stupidity, normal development.

  1. Agamben G. (1998). Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Stanford: University Press (trad. it. Homo sacer: il potere sovrano e la nuda vita. Einaudi: Torino, 2001).
  2. André J. (1999). What does a woman want? Other Press: New York.
  3. Arendt H. (1963 [2006]). Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. New York: Penguin (trad. it. La banalità del male. Eichmann a Gerusalemme. Milano: Feltrinelli, 1964).
  4. Balint E. (1989). Before I was I. Psychoanalysis and the imagination. London: Free Association Books (trad. it. Prima che io fossi io. La psicoanalisi e l’immaginazione. Roma: Armando, 1996).
  5. Beck U. (1986). Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage, 1992.
  6. Bion W.R. (1958). On Arrogance. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 39: 144-146.
  7. Bion W.R. (1962). Learning from Experience. London: Tavistock (trad. it. Apprendere dall’esperienza. Roma: Armando, 1990).
  8. Bion W.R. (1994). Clinical Seminars and Other Works. London: Karnac (trad. it. Seminari clinici. Milano: Raffaello Cortina, 1998).
  9. Blanchot M. (1973). The Madness of the Day. York: Station Hill Press (trad. it. La follia del giorno. Napoli: Filema, 2000).
  10. Bollas C. (1987). The Shadow of the Object: Psychoanalysis and the Unthought Known. London: Free Association Books (trad. it. L’ombra dell’oggetto: psicoanalisi del conosciuto non pensato. Roma: Borla, 2001).
  11. Bollas C. (2015). Psychoanalysis in the Age of Bewilderment: On the Return of the Oppressed. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 96: 535-551. DOI: 10.1111/1745-8315.1235
  12. Botella C., Botella S. (2005). The Work of Psychic Figurability: Mental States Without Representation. London: Routledge/The Institute of Psychoanalysis.
  13. Boxsel M. Van (2003). The Encyclopaedia of Stupidity. London: Reaction Books.
  14. Campbell D., Enckell H. (2005). Metaphor and the violent act. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 86: 801-823.  DOI: 10.1516/YDDF-FQ2P-N53X-ML1
  15. Casement P. (1985). On Learning from the Patient. London: Tavistock (trad. it. Apprendere dal paziente. Milano: Raffaello Cortina, 1989).
  16. Castoriadis C. (1988). Logique, imagination, reflexion [Lecture presented to the colloquium on The Unconscious and Science, University of Paris-X (Nanterre), 5-6 March]. In: Dorey R., ed., L’Inconscient et la science. Paris: Dunod, 1991.
  17. Civitarese G. (2021). The limits of interpretation. A reading of Bion’s “On Arrogance”. International Journal of Psychoanalysis 102, 2: 236-257. DOI: 10.1080/00207578.2020.182795
  18. Connolly W.E. (1999). Neuropolitics: Thinking, Culture, Speed. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  19. Cooper A., Lousada J. (2005). Borderline Welfare: Feeling and Fear of Feeling in Modern Welfare. London: Karnac.
  20. Corradi Fiumara G. (2009). Spontaneity. A Psychoanalytic Inquiry. East Sussex: Routledge.
  21. Dalrymple T. (2019). In Praise of Folly: The Blind-Spots of Our Mind. London: Gibson Square Books.
  22. Deleuze G. (1968). Différence et répétition. Paris: PUF (trad. it. Differenza e ripetizione. Milano: Raffaello Cortina, 1997).
  23. Dermen S. (2001). What do psychoanalysts know about the mind and what is its evidential basis? Bulletin of the British Psycho-Analytical Society, 37: 6.
  24. Derrida J. (2008). “The Transcendental ‘Stupidity’ (‘Bêtise’) of Man and The Becoming-Animal according to Deleuze”. In: Shwab G., ed., Deleuze, Derrida, Psychoanalysis. New York: Columbia University Press.
  25. Drivers R. (2011). The Folly of Fools. The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life. New York: Basic Books.
  26. Duchinsky R. Foster S. (2021). Mentalising and Epistemic Trust: The Work of Peter Fonagy and Colleagues at the Anna Freud Centre. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  27. Feldman M. (2001). What do psychoanalysts know about the mind? What is the evidential basis for this knowledge? Bulletin of the British Psycho-Analytical Society, 37: 4.
  28. Flaubert G. (1913). Dictionnaire des idées reçues. Paris: Conard (trad. it. Dizionario dei luoghi comuni. Milano: Adelphi, 2013).
  29. Fliess W. (1897). Die Beziehungen zwischen Nase un weiblichen Geschlechsorganen in ihrerv biologischen Bedeutung dargestellt. Leipzig and Vienna: Franz Deuticke (French translation: Les Relations entre le nez e les Organes génitaux de la femme: Présentées selon leurs signification biologique. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1977).
  30. Fonagy P., Bateman A. (2012). Handbook of Mentalizing in Mental Health Practice. American Psychiatric Association.
  31. Fonagy P., Target M. (1996). Playing With Reality: I. Theory of Mind and The Normal Development of Psychic Reality. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 77: 217-233.
  32. Fonagy P., Target M. (2000). Playing With Reality: III. The Persistence of Dual Psychic Reality in Borderline Patients. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 81: 853-873.
  33. Foucault M. (1997). Polemics, Politics, and Problematizations: An Interview with Michael Foucault. In: Rabinow P., ed., Ethics, Subjectivity and Truth. New York: Penguin, 111-119.
  34. Freud S. (1907). Zur sexuellen Auflärung der Kinder (trad. it. Istruzione sessuale dei bambini. In: OSF, vol. 5. Torino: Boringhieri, 1972).
  35. Freud S. (1908a). Über infantilen Sexualtheorien (trad. it. Teorie sessuali dei bambini. In: OSF, vol. 5. Torino: Boringhieri, 1972).
  36. Freud S. (1908b). Analyse der Phobie eines fünfjährigen Knaben (trad. it. Analisi della fobia di un bambino di cinque anni. (Caso clinico del piccolo Hans). In: OSF, vol. 5. Torino: Boringhieri, 1972).
  37. Freud S. (1908c). Der Familienroman der Neurotiker (trad. it. Il romanzo familiare dei nevrotici. In: OSF, vol. 5. Torino: Boringhieri, 1972).
  38. Freud S. (1914). Zur Einführung des Narzissmus (trad. it. Introduzione al narcisismo. In: OSF, vol. 7. Torino: Boringhieri, 1975).
  39. Freud S. (1914). Aus der Geschichte einer infantilen Neurose (trad. it. Dalla storia di una nevrosi infantile. In: OSF, vol. 7. Torino: Boringhieri, 1975).
  40. Freud S. (1921). Massenpsychologie und Ich-Analyse (trad. it. Psicologia delle masse e analisi dell’Io. In: OSF, vol. 9. Torino: Boringhieri, 1977).
  41. Freud S. (1961). Sigmund Freud to Marie Bonaparte, 13. August 1937. In Freud E.L., ed., Letters of Sigmund Freud. London: Hogarth.
  42. Freud S., Jones E. (1995). The Complete Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Ernest Jones, 1908-1939. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press (trad. it. Epistolari, Corrispondenza con Ernest Jones, 1908-1939. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 2001).
  43. Grubrich-Simitis I. (1984). From Concretism to Metaphor - Thoughts on Some Theoretical and Technical Aspects of the Psychoanalytic Work with Children of Holocaust Survivors. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 39, 1: 301-319.
  44. Haslanger S. (2021). Political Epistemology and Social Critique. In: Sobel D., Vallentyne P., Wall S., eds. Oxford Studies in Political Philosophy Volume 7. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  45. Julius A. (2021). Willed Ignorance: Reflections on academic free speech, occasioned by the David Miller case (in precedenza, l’articolo è stato presentato alla Facoltà di Legge UCL il 24 novembre 2021).
  46. Josephs L. (1989). The World of the Concrete. A Comparative Approach. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 25: 477-500. DOI: 10.1080/00107530.1989.1074631
  47. Kermode F. (1967). The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction. Oxford: Oxford University Press (trad. it. Il senso della fine: studi sulla teoria del romanzo. Milano: Rizzoli, 1972).
  48. Kohon G. (1986). The British School of Psychoanalysis: The Independent Tradition. London: Free Association Books.
  49. Kohon G. (1999). No Lost Certainties to Be Recovered. London: Karnac.
  50. Kohon G. (2007). Borderline traces and the question of diagnosis. In: Green A., ed., Resonance of Suffering: Countertransference in Non-Neurotic Structures. London: International Psychoanalytical Association.
  51. Kohon G. (2016). Reflections on the Aesthetic Experience: Psychoanalysis and the Uncanny. London: Routledge/The Institute of Psychoanalysis.
  52. Kohon G. (2017). Some thoughts on the negative in the work of Eduardo Chillida. In: Perelberg R.J., Kohon G., eds. The Greening of Psychoanalysis. André Green’s New Paradigm in Contemporary Theory and Practice. London: Karnac.
  53. Kohon G. (2018a). British Psychoanalysis: New Perspectives in the Independent Tradition. London: Routledge/The Institute of Psychoanalysis.
  54. Kohon G. (2018b). Bye-bye, sexuality. In: Perelberg R., ed. Psychic Bisexuality. A British-French Dialogue. Abingdon, Oxon & New York, NY: Routledge.
  55. Kohon G. (2019a). Concerning the Nature of Psychoanalysis. The Persistence of a Paradoxical Discourse. Abingdon, Oxon & New York, NY: Routledge.
  56. Kohon G. (2019b). Encountering the uncanny: Eduardo Chillida, Ai Weiwei, and the psychoanalytic frame. In: Bronstein C., Seulin C., eds. On Freud’s “The Uncanny”. London: Routledge.
  57. Lagache D. (1948). Contribution to the psychology of criminal behaviour: psychoanalytic commentary on an expert’s report. In: Lagache D., The Work of Daniel Lagache. Selected Writings, London: Karnac, 1993, pp. 33-65.
  58. Lagache D. (1962). The conception of man in the psychoanalytic experience. In: Lagache D., The Work of Daniel Lagache. Selected Writings, London: Karnac, 1993, pp. 237-249.
  59. Laplanche J., Pontalis J.B. (1967). The Language of Psychoanalysis. London: Hogarth Press.
  60. Levi P. (1986). I sommersi e i salvati. Torino: Einaudi.
  61. Levinas E. (1975). Sur Maurice Blanchot. Montpellier: Fata Morgana.
  62. Livio M. (2013). Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein - Colossal Mistakes by Great Scientists that Changed our Understanding of Life and the Universe. New York NY-London: Simon & Schuster.
  63. Masson J.M. (1985). The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess - 1887-1904. Translated and Edited by J. M. Masson. Cambridge, Massachusetts & London: The Belkan Press of Harvard University Press (trad. it. Sigmund Freud. Lettere a Wilhelm Fliess, 1887-1904. Torino: Boringhieri, 1986).
  64. Mahler-Shoenberger M. (1942). Pseudoimbecility: A Magic Cap of Invisibility. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 11: 149-164. DOI: 10.1080/21674086.1942.1192549
  65. Marty P., de M’Uzan M. (1963). L’investigation psycho-somatique. Paris: PUF.
  66. Musil R. (1937). Discorso sulla stupidità. Napoli: Diogeno, 2015.
  67. McDougall J. (1978). Plea for a Measure of Abnormality. London: Free Association Books.
  68. McDougall J. (1982). Theatre of the Mind: Illusion and Truth on the Psychoanalytical Stage. London: Free Association Books.
  69. Nancy J-L. (1988). Fragments de la bêtise. Le Temps de la Réflexion. 9: 13-27.
  70. Nobus D., Quinn M. (2005). Knowing Nothing, Staying Stupid. Elements for a psychoanalytic epistemology. London & New York: Routledge.
  71. Oberndorf C.P. (1939). The Feeling of Stupidity. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 20: 443-451.
  72. Otobe N. (2021). Stupidity in Politics. Its Unavoidability and Potential. Oxon and New York: Routledge.
  73. Perelberg R.J. (2008). Time, Space and Phantasy. London: Routledge.
  74. Piaget J. (1983). Piaget’s Theory. In: Mussen P.H., Kessen W., eds., Handbook of Child Psychology: Vol. I History, Theory, and Methods, New York: John Wiley, pp. 41-102.
  75. Purcell W.J. (1999). The Pose of Knowing and the Ambivalence of Being Known. American Journal of Psychoanalysis 59: 143-156.
  76. Ronell A. (2020). Stupidity. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
  77. Sandler J. (1983). Reflections on Some Relations Between Psychoanalytic Concepts and Psychoanalytic Practice. International Journal of Psychoanalysis. 64: 35-45.
  78. Sandler J., Sandler A-M., Davies R. (2000). Clinical and Observational Psychoanalytic Research. Roots of a Controversy. Andre Green & Daniel Stern. London: Routledge. 
  79. Segal H. (1950). Some aspects of the analysis of a schizophrenic. In: The Work of Hanna Segal: A Kleinian Approach to Clinical Practice. New York: Jason Aronson, 1981.
  80. Segal H. (1957). Notes on symbol formation. In: The Work of Hanna Segal: A Kleinian Approach to Clinical Practice. New York: Jason Aronson, 1981.
  81. Segal H. (1991). Dream, Phantasy and Art. London: Routledge (trad. it. Sogno, fantasia e arte. Milano: Raffaello Cortina, 1991).
  82. Slade M., Priebe S., eds, (2006). Choosing Methods in Mental Health Research. Mental Health Research from Theory to Practice. London: Routledge.
  83. Spillius E. (2003). Anthropology and psychoanalysis: A personal concordance. Bulletin of the British Psycho-Analytical Society, 39: 7-24.
  84. Winnicott D.W. (1969). The mother-infant experience of mutuality. Psycho-Analytic Explorations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press (trad. it. Esplorazioni psicoanalitiche. Milano: Raffaello Cortina, 1995).

Gregorio Kohon, "Come ho potuto essere così stupido?". L’impoverimento simbolico e la questione degli ideali in "PSICOANALISI" 1/2023, pp 53-75, DOI: 10.3280/PSI2023-001004