Mindscapes

Vittorio Lingiardi is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and Full Professor at Sapienza University of Rome in Italy. The co-author of the prize-winning Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual, he has won numerous other prizes—most recently the prestigious Sigourney Award. He has published several books and he writes regularly for the leading culture magazines in Italy.

“In Mindscapes Poet Psychoanalyst Vittorio Lingiardi, a writer of astounding brilliance, erudition, and exuberant inventiveness, guides us on a tour through the seemingly endless worlds of the human mind and the ‘non-human environment’ as they do and do not connect. Be prepared to allow Lingiardi’s reflections to open your psychoanalytic mind to an expanded consciousness of the manifold dimensions of our human meeting with our environmental ‘other.’ Mindscapes gives us a wider, more powerful and com/passionate lens through which to view and to illuminate the complexity of our time.”Jessica Benjamin, psychoanalyst, NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis“In this compelling and searching book Vittorio Lingiardi links the many worlds in which we live—from our deeply private internal world to our social life in the real. A fascinating and important book.”Christopher Bollas, psychoanalyst, British Psychoanalytical Society“Mindscapes by Vittorio Lingiardi explores how landscapes reflect our inner selves, drawing from psychoanalysis, neuroscience, literature, and art. An insightful and beautifully written book appealing to nature lovers, emphasizing the importance of external spaces in understanding who we are. A must read.” Vittorio Gallese, neuroscientist, University of Parma, Italy“Vittorio Lingiardi’s Mindscapes is a fascinating and original exploration of the profound link between our inner worlds and the external environment. Drawing on psychoanalysis, literature, art, and neuroscience, Lingiardi argues that landscapes aren't just scenery; they are reflections of our psyche, shaping our memories and dreams.”Amitav Ghosh, novelist and essayist “Vittorio Lingiardi’s Mindscapes: The Psyche in the Landscape is a remarkable book in the range of topics discussed, and perspectives and insights provided into the role that landscapes play in our inner lives. I know of no other book quite like it. Lingiardi brings together, in a dazzling display of erudition, observations on landscapes from the fields of philosophy, poetry, psychoanalysis, aesthetics, neuroscience, urban architecture, political theory, and self as a landscape. One finds phrases and insights in the book that are breath-taking—for example, the view of landscapes as “Eros of the earth”; and the experience of collecting objects. Lingiardi writes much about poetry and landscapes. Reading his book is itself a poetic experience of the landscape of Lingiardi’s remarkably fertile and creative mind. I strongly recommend it as a mind-expanding experience for the reader.”Morris Eagle, psychoanalyst, New Center for Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles“A beautifully written, richly evocative book that is both timely and timeless in its focus on the psychic importance of place, of the external environment and the landscapes we engage with, how they shape us, and live within us. Vittorio Lingiardi compellingly argues that the psyche is in the landscape and the landscape is in the psyche. Seamlessly and deftly drawing on philosophy, psychoanalysis, literature, art, and architecture Lingiardi connects us with the psychic importance of our natural heritage. This is a book that deserves reading and re-reading.”Alessandra Lemma, psychoanalyst, Fellow, British Psychoanalytic Society“Mindscapes explores with exquisite sensitivity our relationship with place, with nature, with context. Writing with rare grace and originality, Vittorio Lingiardi illuminates our mental spaces, giving readers a deep sense of the esthetic and spiritual dimensions of psychoanalytic exploration. Reading this book is like savoring a long and moving poem.”Nancy McWilliams, PhD, ABPP Visiting Professor Emerita, Graduate School of Applied & Professional Psychology, Rutgers University

• 0. Evocation 1. Human flourishing 2. Psychoanalytic spaces 3. Being in the world 4. Pockets full of butterflies 5. Neuroaesthetic landscapes 6. Face and landscape (“that’s where I would like to live”) 7. Amor loci 8. Close your eyes and you'll see 9. This landscape is my father 10. Reverberation 11. The therapist as gardener 12. Dis-oriented 13. Invisible landscape 14. Farewell