Martti Siirala and Gaetano Benedetti – Friends in the dialogical and psychotherapeutic sharing of burdens

Abstract

This article explores the dialogical collaboration and friendship between Martti Siirala and Gaetano Benedetti, particularly in the development of the psychotherapy of schizophrenia and the human psychotherapeutic attitude toward carrying and sharing burdens. Siirala and Benedetti outlined a psychotherapy that considers existential and philosophical dimensions alongside the clinical aspects of illness, without being bound by schools of thought, authorities, or doctrinal systems. The main material in the article is based on documents from the Martti Siirala archive, the most important of which is the German-language correspondence between Siirala and Benedetti after Siirala moved back to Finland from Switzerland at the end of 1957. Benedetti’s activities in Basel are also illuminated by descriptions sent to Siirala by nurse Aino Kärkkäinen of her experiences in Switzerland in the late 1950s.