sabato 18 giugno 2022

LA PRATICA FILOSOFICA: ILLUSIONI, DEFORMAZIONI, ESERCIZI E POSSIBILITA'


Nella pratica filosofica si instaura con le persone un dialogo finalizzato allo sviluppo e al potenziamento delle capacità di pensiero, come quella della concettualizzazione, dell'interpretazione e della problematizzazione. Nel contempo ci si concentra anche sul paradigma del pensiero che è incarnato, solitamente inconsapevolmente, dal soggetto stesso e che funge da suo filtro nella relazione con gli eventi, con gli altri e con sé stesso. Durante questo processo dialogico e filosofico possono emergere resistenze emotive che spesso diventano un ostacolo nello sviluppo del dialogo e del pensiero: ecco perché queste resistenze devono essere spesso tematizzate e analizzate. Le resistenze emotive più frequenti si manifestano in relazione alla presa di coscienza di alcune caratteristiche incarnate dal soggetto e che emergono dal suo modo di pensare che trapela dalle sue stesse parole: caratteristiche che spesso non si vogliono né vedere, né accettare perché considerate troppo brutte e negative dal momento che si scontrano con l'immagine illusoria e distorta che la persona si è creata di sé proprio per sfuggire al confronto con la realtà. In realtà si tratta di una pratica piuttosto comune e diffusa tra gli esseri umani: quando ci si trova a confrontarsi con una realtà che si percepisce come inaccettabile, si tende a negarla, preferendo sostituire "ciò che è" con "ciò che si vorrebbe che fosse", o "ciò che si è" con "ciò che si vorrebbe essere". È quello che viene definito "wishful thinking", ovvero un modo di pensare che è guidato più che altro dalle emozioni, dalle paure e dai desideri e che tende a deformare continuamente la realtà. Questo spiega perché il soggetto preferisce considerarsi un "grande lavoratore" piuttosto che un "avido", o un "generoso" invece di un "egoista", oppure un "pigro" piuttosto che un "impotente", oppure ancora una persona "ribelle" invece di una persona "terrorizzata". Ecco come, a partire dal dialogo, tendono ad emergere diversi conflitti presenti nella persona, come quello esistente tra il "sé reale" e il "sé ideale", o tra la dimensione razionale e quella emotiva, o tra il livello delle azioni e quello delle intenzioni; conflitti che, soprattutto quando non vengono tematizzati, tendono a generare ansia, frustrazione e dissonanza cognitiva, tutti stati emotivi e cognitivi che il soggetto spesso cerca di superare (solitamente senza successo) attraverso la manipolazione, la deformazione, la menzogna, la repressione, la negazione, la compensazione oppure attraverso la costruzione e l'utilizzo di maschere truccate, di falsi miti e di scintillanti illusioni che hanno lo scopo di accecare non solo gli altri, ma ancor di più sé stessi. E rispetto a tutto ciò la pratica filosofica di ispirazione socratica si propone, attraverso il dialogo, di aumentare la consapevolezza del soggetto non solo rispetto ai conflitti in atto, ma anche rispetto alle difficoltà e ai problemi vissuti e che spesso derivano da forme di pensiero rigide, incoerenti o assolutistiche. Attraverso diversi esercizi di pensiero, inoltre, la pratica offre una spazio di libertà, di distacco da sé e di gioia in cui la persona si conquista la possibilità di pensare altrimenti, assaporando il brivido di adottare temporaneamente altre prospettive, nonché la vertigine di sperimentare altre visioni del mondo prese in prestito da quel prezioso e inesauribile bacino di idee che più comunemente e semplicemente chiamiamo "storia della filosofia".

domenica 19 dicembre 2021

Conoscersi e morire

Quando la maschera penetra nella pelle diventa parte del volto: testa e maschera diventano così parti di un'unica sostanza. A questo punto la separazione della maschera dal volto assume il senso di una decapitazione e la fine della finzione assume i contorni di una piccola morte: per essere pronti a conoscere se stessi, dunque, bisogna essere pronti a morire.


domenica 12 dicembre 2021

A world of snipers

The world is full of snipers which means it is full of people hiding in the shadows but ready to shoot at those who expose themselves. The haters are virtual snipers who shoot without showing themselves. And since there are a lot of repressed people around, even the web is full of haters: people who need to vent their personal frustrations through virtual violence, convenient and immediate; today, in fact, to hurt others is easy and comfortable: often just one click is enough.




domenica 5 dicembre 2021

A crazy and emotional ship

There is a ship full of passengers. Everyone knows that the ship will sooner or later wreck. It won't happen immediately, however, but in a while. In the meantime the ship proceeds with people on board who spend their remaining time in many different ways: there are those who dive into the sea to cool off a bit, some to distract themselves, some to become the most fit of all and some even to drown. There are also those who prefer to lock themselves in the cabin to feel safe and to spend a bit of peaceful time in their own space; this kind of people aim to build their own ivory tower in order to isolate themselves from the infinite ocean they have below and all around them, and into which they are about to dissolve anyway. 

If you wanted to focus your gaze more accurately on the heterogeneous and varied crew of the ship you would also see people who procreate and, at the same time, those who hang themselves; moreover you would see people who prefer to rest and others who would rather be busy by doing different activities. Beside them you can find people who love to spend their days by having lunch and dinner with others, talking amiably about this and that, without wanting to say anything in particular. There are also those who entertain others by giving any kind of lessons, such as history lessons, music lessons and even fitness courses. The fitness courses are the most popular in the ship: many people of the crew really want to keep a good and enviable shape.

We are talking about many different human beings who live in the same ship which continues to plow the waves while the dawns follow one another like precise strokes of a pendulum that diligently count the finite moments of a meaningless time with infinite horizons. 

Among the remaining passengers there are those who sell sandwiches, those who clean, those who play at the casino trying to get rich, those who pray to God with the secret hope of a definitive salvation and those who work all day long by complaining about the lack of free time in their life. If you look around and pay even more attention you may happen to see people who love to tell others what will happen the day after and what would be the right thing to do in order to increase the level of well-being of the entire crew; some of them keep yelling: "Things must change! It is no longer possible to go on in this way for fuck's sake!". The word you may happen to hear the most with deep resentment and indignant violence is "Shame!". On the other hand there are many people who are attached to the past and to the traditions which they strongly defend and promote with great conviction.

Then there are those who steer the ship and spend time discussing the best direction to follow by only occasionally touching the rudder that seems to be considered more like a trophy than a tool. There are also those who spend most of their time complaining about the weather and those who read newspapers with a visible intellectual attitude and who, through their proud and angry silence, seem to think: "The world is not as it should be! Society is not as I would like it to be! It's all their fault! I am not happy because of them!". 

It is a very strange and curious ship which is full of people the closer they get to the shipwreck, the more it feels the need to delude themselves, the need to vent their own fear and anger on someone else and the need to grasp the absolute with an incredible jump to escape from reality once for all. 

Anyway we were about to forget about those many weird and funny people who keep planning holidays: the meaning of their life seems to get a break from their life itself; most of them don't even really know why they always keep running and doing so many things because they never have time to ask themselves why they never have time: they are walking existential paradoxes trapped in a curious vicious circle they prefer not to know about.

Among the many different categories of people that would remain to be described there is at least one more who deserves to be mentioned: that of those who spend their time observing others, taking notes about what they see and what they think. A few of them (who sometimes, who more often) try also to have a rational dialogue with someone of the crew in order to bring a bit of joy in this crazy and emotional ship: they are called philosophers. Usually they do not have much success, on the contrary many respectable men of the institutions present on the ship, including several school principals, lawyers, teachers and administrators, consider these philosophers dangerous and feel a great distrust, a deep suspicion and a notable antipathy towards them. In this ship, in fact, dialogue and thinking are considered something inappropriate; something that often powerful people, when they can and when it's convenient try to discourage with different kinds of punishments, more or less severe. In this ship, indeed, if you want to live without major problems and without attracting too many disadvantages, it is better  if you do not think and if you do not dialogue at all, especially in public.

However, in the meantime, regardless of what each individual of the entire crew does or wants or thinks, the ship proceeds inexorably towards its own unknown, inevitable and meaningless goal.




lunedì 6 settembre 2021

The orphans of themselves

Many human beings have become parents only because they have never been able, not even once, to give birth to themselves.




(Work by Aphaia. To see more works of her go to Istagram and check @aphaia)

domenica 9 maggio 2021

A dying prisoner suspended between finite and infinite

 I am a limited being made up of organs, muscles, tendons, cartilages, joints, blood and cells. I live by following ideals that orient my life, that give it meaning but at the same time constantly ruin it. I would like to be who I am not. I would like to do what I can't. I would like to achieve what I don't have. I am a tightrope between dung and salvation, between finite and infinite, between the fear of nothing and the longing for everything; and the more this rope is stretched, the more it risks breaking. And so, between an attempt to reach perfection and the need to mend the continuous tears resulting from this tension, I wear out daily and inexorably burn myself. And as I aim for the top, perfection crumbles in front of me: and the higher I aim, the more it shatters. Each step I take is an attempt on life. Each jump I take is a piece that detaches from the chaotic puzzle that makes up my life. Each stroke forward is the crumbling of a dream. Thus, as I climb daily towards heaven, I slip desperately towards the boundless nothingness which is the grave of every ideal and the cradle of all existence. Physical collapse. Inner shipwreck. Dying life. And I wake up cyclically all sweaty and panting from obsessive dreams and each time I see myself for what I really am: a limping beggar, on the edge of a sidewalk, dying out of an excess of desire.