When a psychoanalyst
rereads the Bible

Massimo Recalcati, La legge della Parola -  Radici Bibliche  della psicoanalisi, [The Law of the Word - Biblical Roots of Psychoanalysis], Einaudi, 2022

Massimo Recalcati says that he started these studies on the biblical roots of psychoanalysis on his own. If we think that Freud drew on Greek myths such as Oedipus and Antigone to represent the dramas of the human psyche, we cannot help but be surprised by Recalcati’s choice. Many biblical characters are involved and some we already know from the author’s previous books, such as Isaac, Abraham, and Job. I am pleased, however, that he has also turned his lucid and analytical gaze to somewhat difficult books such as Qoelet and the Song of Songs. I think the most important point is what the author states in the introduction that the Law serves to show that we humans are not masters of our foundation and cannot constitute ourselves as everything. This is why the Law isolates, in man's drive to want to be God, his greatest folly. Yet the impossibility of being like God can be generative of life and freedom, and can lead to an immense conversion. Reading and meditating on the biblical text with these enrichments can only broaden the mind and heart to the depth of the mystery that indwells in us.