A Rhinoceros with a Butterfly Heart: Antonino Ferro in Conversation with Giuseppe Civitarese

Abstract

ABSTRACT At the time I was specializing in psychiatry in Pavia, Antonino Ferro was already a famous analyst. Although we lived in the same city, because of the age difference, I did not know him personally. He was no longer working in the clinical services of psychiatry, but only privately. I only really got to know him through his books. My first distinct memory of him, some thirty years ago, was when, in association with a dream of mine, I expressed to my analyst the enthusiasm I was experiencing from reading his book on the technique of child psychoanalysis. 1 1 A. Ferro, 1992, The Bi-Personal Field: Experiences in Child Analysis, London: Routledge, 1999. It was incredible the sense of freedom, creativity, humanity that I felt in that text and in others that I later got hold of. Afterward, it was the most natural thing in the world to ask him to be one of my supervisors for analytical training. We worked together for six years. Then, after becoming an analyst, a strong bond of collaboration and friendship developed, as evidenced, among other things, by the three books we published together. 2 2 The Analytic Field and its Transformations, 2015, London: Routledge, 2018; A Short Introduction to Psychoanalysis, London: Routledge, 2020; Playing and Vitality in Psychoanalysis, London: Routledge, 2022. In both of us, curiosity and passion for psychoanalysis are more alive than ever, although there is also a hint of bitterness, because of the sometimes gratuitous difficulties that, as it is well known, you suffer in the life of psychoanalytic institutions everywhere. The idea that guided me in conducting the interview (perhaps, more of a conversation) was to bring out the figure of Ferro not so much as a scholar – for that there is an abundance of literature available – but as a person. I will say no more, so as to leave readers with the pleasure (I hope) of reading. I would just like to express my gratitude to Daniel Goldin, editor of this issue of Psychoanalytic Inquiry, for giving me the opportunity of being part of this very interesting project.