Frederick Perls
Io, la fame, l'aggressività

Me, Hunger, Aggressiveness is the work of a psychoanalyst who retraces the central themes of psychoanalysis to arrive at conclusions that, at the time, were considered heretical.

The book is divided into several parts; in order to make his fundamental assertions, the author meticulously and critically revisits the works of Freud and Jung, as well as various predecessors who put forward theses on those same ideas.

The theory that emerges starts from one axiom: psychotherapy cannot be considered as exact as mathematics in its results. With that premise, starting from comparable premises, we can nonetheless arrive at similar paths whose object and aim are also similar.

To reach similar conclusions, the obligatory path revolves around three factors, examined in three distinct parts of the work. The first part is titled Holism and Psychoanalysis, holism because "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts" (n.d.r. Treccani); holism is the whole of the Greeks, once again a term borrowed from Greek philosophy.

The second part of the work is titled “Mental Metabolism”; it focuses on the way knowledge is acquired and how it is managed by the conscious and unconscious cerebral systems.

It all begins with hunger, as a primordial instinct, driving the desire to learn—even through the act of nourishment itself. From the various aspects this gesture assumes, we move on to reflection, introjection, splitting, and projection of the act onto practical and real life.

With these premises, the vital and descriptive space opens up for the third part—a sort of workbook for using the tools described. Fittingly, the title of the third part is “The Therapy of Concentration," where the author develops a multitude of techniques to refine the concept of knowledge and the management of events.

Starting from neurasthenia, while carefully distinguishing it from concentration, attention is drawn to the concept of “eating”, fundamental for assimilation so that the contents can be visualized. The dream is also mentioned, borrowing from Freud’s thesis, to demonstrate its relevance today.

From the present, the work examines the inner silence, the I as the first person singular, to nullify retroflection and focus on the body in order to assimilate the projections of thought.

According to the author, abolishing denial enhances the growth of self-awareness, leading up to the determination of causes and co-causes of insomnia, stuttering, anxiety, and our very being as Jekyll-Hyde.