A cure for the soul: mesmerism, psychical research, and psychoanalysis in the life and work of Emilio Servadio (1904-1995)

Abstract

Emilio Servadio was an international scholar and psychoanalyst native of Sestri Ponente. He distinguished himself in several fields of studies and literary production, he wrote over one thousand contributions for the Enciclopedia italiana di Scienze, Lettere e Arti (1931) wrote poems and composed music, and also founded with his master, friend and colleague Edoardo Weiss, the Società Psicoanalitica Italiana. Servadio was renowned for the constitution of S.P.I., as well as he pioneered the field of psychoanalytic studies and sexology. In this context we may situate the beginning of Servadio's career and interest in the cure of sexual deviances. A comparison between Eastern and Western culture and a multidisciplinary perspective towards different branch of humanities have a predominant role in Servadio's work, thought and therapeutic approach to sexual deviances. The life and work of the Genoese psychoanalyst was also deeply influenced by Metapsychic milieus. Evidence that Servadio's conception of therapeutics was strictly connected with these cultural fields and is conceived at the 'intersection' of different forms of knowledge is to be found in the beginning of his career. Servadio wrote several articles on the topic of the “interaction of body and soul”, which were published in the journals of psychoanalytical and metapsychic associations. Servadio was member of different metapsychic groups, which attended to find out which channels (of social, cultural, psychological and parapsychological nature) and means allow to make an interaction between the mind and the individual/collective psychic sphere possible, such as it happens in the “oneiric features” of dreams