French Literature Reviews - 2026

A. Ferro, The Viscera of the Soul: Alphabet of Emotions and Narrativity
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas

Antonino Ferro

The Viscera of the Soul: Alphabet of Emotions and Narrativity

Ithaque

ISBN 978-2-490350-02-5

24,00 €

192 p.

Revisiting themes close to his heart—notably field theory and the theory of narrativity, the functions of reverie and dream-life, the role and stakes of interpretation, and the transformation of emotions—Ferro returns to the core of his practice to open up new clinical perspectives. He argues that what is produced during a session is co-constructed by the patient and the analyst, highlighting the relevance of reverie, which allows raw, unprocessed psychic content to be transformed into symbolizable representations in the form of life narratives. The factors of healing are thus described as the deployment of a new capacity to contain a sensory experience that, session by session, can gradually be transformed into an image and then into a narrative. Ferro also addresses themes often neglected in traditional analytical texts, such as the implications of the analyst breaking the frame, the aging of psychoanalysts, and the role of supervision in analytical training.

Antonino Ferro is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and a member of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society (SPI), of which he was president from 2013 to 2017. Specializing in the treatment of children and difficult patients, he works to forge links between psychoanalysis, scientific communities, and academia, out of concern for the vitality of his discipline. Several of his books have been translated into French, including Rêveries (2012), Éviter les émotions, vivre les émotions (2014), and Le Champ analytique (2015), published by Ithaque.

Rooted in contemporary psychoanalytic thought, the book expands upon field theory by emphasizing the dynamic, co-constructed nature of the therapeutic encounter between patient and analyst. Ferro examines how raw sensory impressions and unprocessed psychic material find new life through reverie, gradually evolving into symbolizable images and cohesive life narratives. This perspective reframes healing not as the uncovering of hidden traumas, but as the steady cultivation of a mind capable of containing and metabolizing intense emotional experiences within the analytic dialogue.

Beyond core clinical mechanics, the work ventures into less charted territories of psychoanalytic practice, including the consequences of breaking the analytical frame, the professional and personal reality of aging clinicians, and the foundational role of supervision in training. This volume will particularly interest practicing psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, and psychotherapists seeking to enrich their clinical framework, as well as scholars of the humanities exploring the intersection of narrative structure, emotional transformation, and human subjectivity.