Obituary: Prof Jorge Canestri

Jorge Canestri came from a family who led long lives. He liked to talk about this. He had so much more to give, but sadly he never reached the age of 80. Jorge died on 7 May 2021, leaving behind his wife, daughter, two sons and four grandchildren. Jorge’s death was a painful loss for his family and friends, the Italian Psychoanalytical Association, his colleagues at the International Journal and the worldwide psychoanalytical community.

Jorge Canestri was born in Buenos Aires on 19 August 1942. Early in his life, his father introduced him to the importance of language and literature: the “sayings” of poets are necessary for the young soul, his father told him. And so the young Jorge was sent to attend lectures at the Academia Argentina de Letras, where, in Jorge’s later words, he felt at times surprised, amazed and bored. It was at these meetings that he met Jorge Luis Borges, and without understanding the content of his works, Jorge recalled the sense of magic in Borges’s words. The two Jorges would meet again in Rome in 1984, when Borges agreed to an interview with Jorge and they talked about the poetic discovery of childhood by Charles Dickens and Freud. The study of the magic of language remained a lifelong passion for Jorge, as did his love of fine art. As a teenager and a young man, Jorge painted pictures before he turned to medicine. These cultured roots in his youth informed Jorge’s later wide-ranging interests. His preference for the close, contemplative absorption of painting and literature, and his passion for the humanities, along with science and mathematics, remained with Jorge throughout his life.

In 1966, Jorge studied medicine and psychiatry, graduating with First Class Honours from the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires. From 1966 to 1972 he completed his psychiatric and psychotherapeutic residency in Buenos Aires under the training analysts Pichon Rivière and Mauricio Goldenberg. At the same time, he did his psychoanalytic training at the Asociaci