Thinking as a partner

A feeble hold that remains vital.

Original  painting by Gianni Russomando.[1]

To benefit from one’s calling[2]/47.

The dream – our night dream that is – is very close to a film that we capture[3]  because we had obscured the unresolved, and here the conscience is in a hurry, not listening to our defense’s reasons: with the risk of sweeping away that feeble hold that remains vital, even to the newborn who does not yet practice speaking but already prepares it.

The diatribe with the conscience begins starting with the dream: or with the lapsus, if we want.

Marina Bilotta Membretti / Cernusco sul Naviglio – March 21, 2025

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[1] Gianni Russomando, short biography : “I’m born in Vercelli (1956), graduated at the ‘Istituto di Belle Arti di Vercelli’, I describe myself as an ‘amanuense’ (medieval hand-painter) and far from expositions and competitions.”

[2]  www.tutorsalus.net/index.php/en/pensare-da-partner-2/358-psychoanalyst-and-profession-1

[3] It is known that in front of a film our conscience is not dominated by the outside, as in the case of hypnosis or other direct therapy : the capacity of the subject to understand and  will is not compromised in the case of a film.

From sovereignty to sovereignism.

In the photo: a few of original puppets set up in the theatre workshop of ‘Compagnia Marionettistica Carlo Colla e figli’, at the ‘Museo del Teatro di Figura’/ MuTeF in Milan.

To benefit from one’s calling[1]/46.

It is unconscious : on whose sanctions conscience imagines to be able to pass over, even recognizing the legal link which makes it reality, and therefore dutifully assuming a damage no longer imaginary.

From sovereignty to sovereignism[2] there is a gulf, as a matter of fact.

Marina Bilotta Membretti / Cernusco sul Naviglio - March  12, 2025

TutorSalus.net - Freudian journalism

[1] www.tutorsalus.net/index.php/en/pensare-da-partner-2/358-psychoanalyst-and-profession-1

[2] In the direct therapies and in hypnosis, the other no longer exists as a reality partner: becomes a leader to whom you can also delegate your defense.

Between man and animals.

In the photo:  ‘Night spirit’ is an Australian Shepherd employed by the Italian State Police; at 4 months he began the trial with the so called ‘gentle method’, in the total absence of coercion, reproaches, punishments; at only 10 months he positively passed the challenge aptitude exam, qualifying himself as a ‘rescue, surface and under the rubble search dog’ at the State Police Dog Center of Nettuno (Italy). ‘Night spirit, Un campanello di speranza’, pg. 63. Taken from ‘Cani & eroi. Storie di poliziotti dal fiuto speciale’ (2019/I.P.Z.S. SpA), Introduction by Franco Gabrielli-Head of Italian State Police and General Director of Italian Public Security, Preface by Alberto Angela-paleontologist and TV journalist.

“In reality the reasons why we can like with such singular intensity an animal like Topsy (or Jofy), are sympathy without ambivalence, making life easier – as it is freed from the conflict difficult to bear with civilization –, the beauty of an existence accomplished as a whole. And, notwithstanding the heterogeneity of the organic growth, the feeling of a close kinship, of an undeniable affinity. Often, when petting Jofy, I caught myself mumbling a melody which I, an absolutely non-musical man, had to recognize as the ‘aria’ of friendship in ‘Don Giovanni[1]’.”[2]

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    To benefit from one’s calling[3]/45.

Even comparing different translations, it is evident Freud’ intention to place a justification between man and animals, in this specific case the dog. When saying “making life easier – as it is freed from the conflict difficult to bear with civilization” -, Freud recognizes the not-existence of istinct for men, who from reality are continuously urged to work for interpreting it, unlike genetical simplification of istinct which directly dictates to animals, limiting them to exclusively look after to the dictation and without posing conflicts.

In this regard a recent  ruling will make you think about, as it was resolved with the acquittal of the son – at the time eighteen-year-old, now twentythree-year-old – once again accused in the Appeal of killing his father during a further attack on the mother, in presence of the brother of the accused. The ruling will make you think about because theme was a crucial issue, with precedent and extensive jurisprudence: the issue of a real ‘self-defense’ that this very painful case allowed us to delve deeper putting on trial the capacity[4] – exclusive category of thinking – which is capacity by the accused to interpret reality, rather than ‘interpretive vulnerability’[5] as previously assumed.

“I answer that I was only focused on going ahead of my father in picking up a knife…”[6], the young man accused would finally admit, thereby indicating the objective human impossibility to deal with more than one emergency at the same time, and also introducing the ‘non-automaticity’ of the defense, even in situations of grave threat and mortal danger : any human defense cannot be istinctive indeed, because it comes from an individual interpretation which animals are not allowed to enjoy.

Freud’ conclusion remains ultimately extraordinary because, as going so far as to blame himself, he connected istinctive naivety of animals to a two-edged emotion of men towards those, as in the cited “aria of friendship” in Mozart, who do not recognize the betrayal : the temptation to give up thinking, from which no one can consider themselves exempted, is only human as a matter of fact.

Marina Bilotta Membretti / Cernusco sul Naviglio – February 22, 2025

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[1] ‘Don Giovanni’ (1787), W. A. Mozart - Act II Scene 10. 

[2] Cited from: 'To Marie Bonaparte' (1936) in ‘Epistolari. Lettere alla fidanzata e ad altri corrispondenti, 1873-1939’, S. Freud/ Bollati Boringhieri (1990).

[3]  www.tutorsalus.net/index.php/en/pensare-da-partner-2/358-psychoanalyst-and-profession-1

[4] See the previous ‘Sentenza 26 – 13.12.2023’ R.G.4/22 – N.R. 7948/2020, I Sez. Corte d’Assise di Appello di Torino, p.19

[5] Cited from the previous ‘Sentenza 26 – 13.12.2023’ R.G.4/22 – N.R. 7948/2020, I Sez. Corte d’Assise di Appello di Torino, p.17

[6] Cited from the previous ‘Sentenza 26 – 13.12.2023’ R.G.4/22 – N.R. 7948/2020, I Sez. Corte d’Assise di Appello di Torino p.16

Sartorial work and thinking.

In the photo, a detail from ‘Child and aunt’ (1940) Paul Klee[1]  on the cover of ‘Inherit from a child. Why not ?’ by Marina Bilotta Membretti - ‘NeP edizioni Srls’ (2024).

To benefit from one’s calling [2] / 44.

“As defined by the International Council on Archives (‘ICA’) : ‘the archives are the documentary by-products of human activities, preserved for their long-term value. Documents created in the course of daily life and actions of individuals and organizations offer direct insights of past events’[3] …fashion archives could be considered similar to databases, intended as collections of works, data or other independent elements systematically or methodically arranged and individually accessible by electronic means or in another way’”. [4]

Memory, which our work of thinking incessantly draws on, we know, is a laboratory which not only selects archive raw materials but also compares and continuously updates them from reality: a quality of memory unimaginable only fifty years ago and still unprecedented, but that special laboratories are already putting it to good use. A thin, but dense and conspicuous niche concerns Haute Couture, which has always been demanding in encoding artefacts that are unique, and the realization of which may require a deviation from the initial design which overlooked some, even correct, solutions[5] : a strong memory, such as the new digital archives, allows you to draw on materials that prove unalterable, therefore highly trusted. And to the designer, as to the researcher, a proven reliability is essential to arrive to increasingly consistent hypotheses: sartorial work, even more than artistic tout-court and however in harmony with other applications, repeats the work of thinking in one’s dealing with, and sometimes even in getting to disentangle memory.

The particular in the detail photo, taken from a work by Paul Klee, is relevant because it places itself at the limit with the fabric knitting that allows the ‘incipit’ of a model, and irreplaceable support of this, otherwise destined for pure imagination, without any feasibility.

Can be represented one’s thinking when exposed to the pathological contingency of a consequence of anguish ? And can be represented the forcing of one’s thinking, and grinning in spite of oneself, from a censorship then caesura that slides into fragmentation, at first alleviating but gradually detaching from reality, what prevents the synthesis and therefore the fruition ? Here Paul Kleee touches, and immediately returns, that flash of less than a moment which precedes the knotting of an already compromised thinking: followed by a compulsive giving way to the thinking of others, in an overall hasty but unspoken work of that certainly crucial and painful step which Freud named removal.

Marina Bilotta Membretti / Cernusco sul Naviglio – February 13, 2025

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[1] Paul Klee (1879 – 1940) was a protagonist of Abstractionism, which also in painting follows the free flowing of imagination : in 1911 Klee founded with other artists the group ‘Der Blaue Reiter’ (The bleu knight), in 1914 he exposed at Berlin together Marc Chagall; between 1916 and 1918 he is called to arms but he doesn’t interrupt painting; in 1920 he inaugurates at Munich his first real painting exhibition; the school, then academic at Düsseldorf, experience to which he was invited by Walter Gropius, ends in 1933 whit his own resignation due to the criticism received from Nazism. His passion for music accompanied him in facing the knots in painting. Since 2005 has been open at  Bern the ‘Zentrum Paul Klee’ that exposes only his works.

[2] www.tutorsalus.net/index.php/en/pensare-da-partner-2/358-psychoanalyst-and-profession-1

[3] ‘Archivi di moda: aspetti di proprietà intellettuale e tutela dei contenuti’, Avv. Giulia Affer in ‘AES Arts+Economics’ #16 - Ottobre 2024, p.65 (‘ICA International Council on Archives’ was founded at UNESCO in 1949), p.65.

[4] ‘Archivi di moda: aspetti di proprietà intellettuale e tutela dei contenuti’, Avv. Giulia Affer in ‘AES Arts+Economics’ #16 - Ottobre 2024, p.80. See also Art.2, comma 1, n. 9 L.633/1941 on the copyright.

[5] ‘Moda e memoria: gli archivi come fonte di ispirazione e innovazione’, November 25th, 2024 - ‘Open Care’ Milan.