Out-of-time Experiences in Four Iconic Twentieth Century European Modernist Novels Including Zeno's Conscience: A Psychosynthetic Analysis

Abstract

On the centenary of the release of Italo Svevo's Zeno's Conscience in 1923, it is opportune to explore the renowned psychoanalytical novel from a fresh perspective—one that not only refrains from contradicting the traditional interpretation but also enhances and complements it. The psychosynthetic approach that I intend to employ in analyzing the transpersonal experiences depicted in "Zeno's Conscience" will demonstrate its efficacy as a valuable tool for attaining a more profound comprehension of the protagonist's—potentially reflecting Svevo's—complex personality. As Assagioli, the founder of psychosynthesis, articulates, it delves into the concept of multiple minds. In this first article of the two, transpersonal experiences of Zeno are identified, followed by descripting similar experiences in three iconic 20th-century European modernist novels, Ulysses, Time Regained and The Man Without Qualities, by using appropriate quotes. The common main feature of these four novels is the steadily flowing time, the natural medium of the "horizontal" processes of personal psychosynthesis (Chronos). My focus here is, however, on the detectable – although rather sporadic – "vertical" episodes of transpersonal psychosynthesis, which are, in a sense, "out of time" (Kairos). Moreover, Zeno's transpersonal experiences are compared with that of the characters’ of the selected three iconic modernist novels.