Introduction

In the autumn of 1997, Lodovico Galleni suggested to me the idea of commemorating the life and work of Silvano Arieti. Though Pisa unfortunately seemed to have forgotten him, his memory was fondly kept alive by many who had enjoyed a personal relationship with him. After a bit more coaxing, I decided to sound out some friends and colleagues about the kind of response such an undertaking might have. I discovered that the enthusiasm for the event was unanimous and the support total, as if it would fill a need or pay a long-contracted debt.

And so the program for the conference “A Psychiatrist Between Two Cultures—Silvano Arieti 1914-1981—The Sense of Psychosis” began to form. It was to be sponsored by the Domus Galilaeana and take place in Pisa on October 3 and 4, 1998. To bring the conference about would require the concerted energies not only of the participants, the city of Pisa, the province of Pisa, and the University of Pisa, but also of the principal Italian associations of psychiatry, psychotherapy, and psychoanalysis.

The scientific community was very aware of its debt to Silvano Arieti for his many contributions, many of which are still unsurpassed. It is not necessary to remind readers of the breadth of Arieti's work. Suffice it to say that those who work in the field of mental health in Italy and are over 40 have had Silvano Arieti as their teacher.

Since his death in 1981 there have been no attempts in Italy to effect an adequate evaluation of his work. Thus it seemed especially desirable to bring into the spotlight all the aspects of his scientific work and, as far as possible, to show what he was like as a human being through the testimony of his sons and many colleagues who knew him personally, as well as through a consideration of his nonpsychiatric work, in particular his last two books (Arieti, 1979, 1981), when evidently he was responding to a need to reinterpret an event and reexamine various reflections that had occupied his life. In fact, the confe