Hope and Despair - Softcover

Borgna, Eugenio

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3034351038 ISBN 13: 9783034351034

Publisher: Peter Lang, 2026

Synopsis

Hope allows us to look at reality with eyes not clouded or obscured by appearance or habit, convention or repetition; it allows us to open ourselves to the future, freeing us from the rigid cage of the past and present.

In Speranza e disperazione [Hope and Despair], Eugenio Borgna follows the concept of hope through moments in literature, on the one hand, and his work in psychiatry on the other. Hope may be fragile, but it is the only way to pull human beings out of loneliness and the darkest depths of the soul.

Consistently listening to patients, and in close conversation with the poetry of Cesare Pavese, among others, he paints a portrait of the slender figure of one of life’s most revolutionary forces.

With a preface by Ilaria de Seta.

About this title

About the Author

Eugenio Borgna (1930-2024) was an Italian psychiatrist and professor. A virtuoso of psychiatry, he shifted perceptions of mental illness not to the “normal” but to the “familiar,” bridging its apparent distance without diminishing its significance in terms of patient suffering and doctors’ attentiveness to care. His many books include La fragilità che è in noi [The Fragility in Us], Parlarsi [Talking to Each Other], Responsabilità e speranza [Responsibility and Hope], and L’ascolto gentile [Kind Listening].

Edition details

• Publisher: Peter Lang
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3034351038
• ISBN 13: 9783034351034
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 66