Psychological Factors in Depression

It was a true pleasure and honor to have worked with Silvano Arieti for a number of decades. Although Silvano was my cousin, he was considerably older than I and really belonged to my parents' generation. Silvano was the older son of the oldest child of my grandparents' six children, whereas I am the younger son of their youngest child. Therefore, although my father was technically Silvano's uncle, they were approximately the same age. As a result of this disparity in age, I did not get to know Silvano until I began my psychiatric training in New York in my mid-20's. From that time on, Silvano served not only as a superb mentor and teacher, but also as a warm colleague and caring friend. Although he may have shown me some preference because we were related, I learned that Silvano actually encouraged, taught, and supported a large group of young psychiatrists to whom he gave his time and knowledge generously. These considerable efforts on his part, which were additions to a busy practice, an active formal teaching schedule, and time needed for his own writing, were not motivated by the wish to create a personal following or develop his own school but sprang from the earnest desire to contribute to and share our understanding of the human condition. Silvano was a true scholar and academic in the best sense of these terms, dedicating himself to the expansion and perpetuation of knowledge.

The breadth and depth of Silvano's own knowledge was nothing short of amazing. He was conversant with all the humanities, being able to find easily an appropriate quote from an Italian opera, a Shakespearean play, a Russian novel, or the works of the Greek philosophers and, of course, from the poetry of that other encyclopedic mind, his beloved Dante Alighieri. What may be less well known was that he had extensive training in neuropathology and neurophysiology and that he followed the latest developments in brain research. This enormous erudition combined with his own originality and c