Stanghellini Giovanni
Department of Health Sciences, University of Florence, 50139 Florence, Italy.
Centro de Estudios de Fenomenologia y Psiquiatrías, Diego Portales University, Santiago 8370068, Chile.
Brain Sci. 2023 Sep 25;13(10):1368. doi: 10.3390/brainsci13101368.
This paper highlights the limitations of narrative logic in mental health care, and in particular of "narrative vigilance"-the tendency to watch over experience via narrativisation, and to tether the concrete particulars of experience to the hypothetical structure of a narrative signification. Narrative logic is grounded in hypotaxis-the syntactic structuring whereby a discourse is characterised by different levels of subordination using linking words that connect, especially in terms of temporal and explanatory consequentiality. I offer an alternative approach based on parataxis-the practice of placing phrases or parts of speech next to each other without subordinating conjunctions. Sentences are juxtaposed without a clear connection; the contrast may generate novel and unexpected combinations between these dissimilar fragments. After distinguishing between parataxis and psychopathological phenomena like disturbances of association, I take inspiration from the work and life of a poet, Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843), considered among the greatest. He suffered for half his life from a severe form of mental illness that would perhaps, today, be diagnosed as schizophrenia. In the poems written during his illness, hypotaxis and narrative vigilance seem to blur, and parataxis takes centre stage. The fading of narrative structure in no way coincides with the absence of meaningfulness. Rather, meaningfulness is left to parataxis itself, that is, to the recombining power of words, sentences, and images. Parataxis itself can provide meaningfulness or, at least, provide the soil in which it can germinate. The void of narration opens the door for the fullness of "emergent" connections. In the final part of the paper, with the help of Freud's ideas on the relationship between "analysis" and "synthesis" in psychoanalytic treatment, some implications are derived about the relevance of parataxis to the logics of discovery in psychotherapeutic care, especially that of persons with severe mental conditions.
本文着重探讨了叙事逻辑在精神卫生保健中的局限性，尤其是“叙事警觉”的局限性。“叙事警觉”指的是通过叙事化来审视体验，并将体验的具体细节与叙事意义的假设结构联系起来的倾向。叙事逻辑基于主从关系——一种句法结构，在这种结构中，话语通过使用连接词来体现不同层次的从属关系，这些连接词尤其在时间和解释的因果关系方面起到连接作用。我提出了一种基于并列关系的替代方法——将短语或词性成分并列放置而不使用从属连词的做法。句子并列排列，没有明显的联系；这种对比可能会在这些不同的片段之间产生新颖且意想不到的组合。在区分了并列关系与诸如联想障碍等精神病理现象之后，我从一位被认为是最伟大诗人之一的约翰·克里斯蒂安·弗里德里希·荷尔德林（1770 - 1843）的作品和生活中汲取灵感。他一生中有一半时间患有严重的精神疾病，在今天，这种疾病可能会被诊断为精神分裂症。在他患病期间所写的诗歌中，主从关系和叙事警觉似乎变得模糊，并列关系占据了中心位置。叙事结构的消退绝不意味着意义的缺失。相反，意义留给了并列关系本身，即留给了词语、句子和意象的重组力量。并列关系本身能够提供意义，或者至少提供意义得以萌芽的土壤。叙事的空白为“涌现”的联系的充实打开了大门。在本文的最后部分，借助弗洛伊德关于精神分析治疗中“分析”与“综合”关系的观点，得出了一些关于并列关系与心理治疗护理中发现逻辑的相关性的启示，尤其是对于患有严重精神疾病的人而言。
