‘Coscienza spietata’/Superio arcaico: attacco al legame e autocastrazione come funzioni del pensiero e del linguaggio di Clemente Rebora

Abstract

‘Ruthless conscience’ / Archaic Superego
Attack on linking and self-castration as psychic functions underpinning Rebora’s thought and language

Making reference to the classic Freudian theory of castration, this article will first set out to examine the motifs (quite common in Rebora) of self-punishment and atonement, alongside the sense of pleasure or relief that accompanies them. It will then proceed to use Bion’s radical development of the Freudian notion of attack on the Oedipal couple to show how a number of representational and performative elements in Rebora’s discourse can all be understood as epiphenomena of a process called “attack on linking” – a psychic process which damages and, in extreme cases, altogether destroys the ability to relate to one’s external and internal reality, as well as to produce thoughts infused with a sense of personal meaning. The aforementioned representational and performative elements include: representations of the body (which Rebora attacked and disparaged); representations of emotions and thought processes (both perceived to engender a state of “permanent emergency”); well-known and much commented on “stylistic” traits such as linguistic obscurity and a strong tendency to abstractness.