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I was immediately attracted by the title of the book, because at a recent conference on the therapeutic relationship with psychotics, one of the themes of the paper I read was the secret and the desperate struggle to preserve it, and also because some years ago in Bologna there had been heated controversy over Zucchini's proposal to make the secret one of the cornerstones of a clinic for psychotics. So at first I was somewhat disappointed to find that in Zapparoli's work the secret was only one theme entwined with the many others which run through the book, even though in the last chapter it stands out from the rest.
In the end, however, I found myself engrossed in this book, which is richer and more complex than any other of Zapparoli's works. A not insignificant aspect of the book's complexity, and perhaps of its attractiveness too, is its verbose and convoluted style, which raises certain themes, and then before developing them fully, replaces them with other more or less related ones, and then reverts to the original theme, in a sequence reminiscent of rondos and fugues. I don't know whether this stylistic device is deliberate or not: it is certainly very appropriate to the relationship with schizophrenia and the schizophrenic, and thus it acquires a metaphorical flavour, as if it were referring to the enigmatic, labyrinthine atmosphere we find ourselves immersed in both when we reflect on the theory of schizophrenia, and when we come face to face with a schizophrenic.
On account of this style of writing, I prefer to describe the book by dealing with each separate theme, rather than by discussing chapters or sections, which is the usual practice. But it is difficult to summarise the book even when discussing it by themes, since the themes themselves are intertwined, and at times it is hard to separate them. All the same I will try my best, knowing that I won't manage to solve the problem fully and will thus run the risk of being pedantic, and, at the same time, i