19-06-12

“It has been a pleasure and an honour having you as guest professor in my course in the psychology faculty and I thank you for all that you have given with this contribution” Massimo Rosselli, Psychiatrist, Chair in Clinical Psychophysiology, PH.D program in Clinical Psychology and Health, University of Florence.

“Dear Richard, you cannot imagine how happy I am for the prestigious recognition that your scientific, historical, and psychological contribution, so important for the well-being of humanity, has obtained also in Florence. You should continue because “per Aspera ad Astra”.” Edoardo Gallico, trained in Medicine at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and Milan , Italy, former Professor of Pathology at the University of Milan, director of the Centre for Tumours, Haifa, Israel, and Chairman of the department of Radiology in the Hospital of Cittiglio, Varese, Italy.

“One owes to Dr. Richard Wolf Nathan, philosopher and psychologist, the suggestive idea of the “Organismic Epochs” which unfold in the realm of embryology, of ontogenesis, of the individual psyche, of mythology and cultural traditions. He has borrowed Jung’s concept of the Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious to define a metahistorical journey of progressive fragmentation-ricomposition of the primordial holistic unity and, currently, he is focussed on a stirring analysis of the myths and legends of diverse cultures. Here the underlying assumption consists in seeing the individual organism in its manifestations as the key to interpreting this metahistorical journey. The Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious thus become in reality concretely “embodied”.” As quoted in L’approccio Olistico di Kurt Goldstein (2007), by Luigi Corsi, philosopher and psychologist of Livorno, Italy .

“The  exploration of the mystery of  human consciousness undertaken by Richard Wolf Nathan is truly a beautiful voyage. Which permits him to discover persons and situations  whose roots lie in myth, in the Shadow, and in the realm of the unexpressed.  The panorama that he has chosen to  express provokes thunderstruck (fulminante) intuitions or leaves one dazed and lost in an inevitable darkness.  The systemizing effort which such a process requires is necessary but also painful; because I believe that the temptation to leave veiled certain truths responds to that caution which Gregory Bateson recommended citing William Blake “…humans fall (precipitano) into those realms where even the angels hesitate to step foot…”  Richard Wolf Nathan and I have had the good fortune to spend some time deepening the theme of Sparagmos... fragmentation while working together in a psychiatric ward. I remember those days as a fertile time.  I appreciate very much the work of this scholar and friend who, underlining the importance of a holistic vision, centres his thinking within the broadest framework.”  Riccardo Bianco, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, Director of the Residential Center for Psychiatric Therapy (Unità Operativa Psichiatrica) of Luino, Hospital Circolo Fondazione Macchi, Varese, Italy 

(Translation from the Italian by Richard Wolf Nathan)