El piloto del alma: Diálogo imaginario para contribuir a la comprensión del sufrimiento humano

Abstract

Considering the obstacles that spring up from the practice as a psychologist assisting people suffering of situations of violence, a question started up about how to reach the inner self of the patients, perceiving that the use of metaphors in the therapeutic space distressed them as if these figures compelled them to start the voyage that means self discovery. This question and several readings awoke an ancient matter about what is the soul? In this study, the question on the essence changed as how has the soul been imagined? From there on the traces of the psique were followed from paths different to those offered by the Psychology enquiring in some words, metaphors and myths, which have been considered by Plato to make known his notion on a part of the soul, that was known in ancient Greece as νοῦς. From the readings of the dialogues Phaedrus and The Republic, we can visualize several aspects of that part of the soul, which could be considered as different forms of the discourse that transmit similar ideas, as the metaphor of the pilot and the inner eye, the word νοῦς and the figure of Athenea; would refer to the notion that in the soul there is a light that helps to see in the obfuscation and guides the soul towards beauty and knowledge. Further on the proposed inquiry this study fulfilled the purpose to discover metaphors and images of the psique that transcend the times and cultures.
In this sense, there still are some milestones awaiting future searches and
eagerness to elaborate a history of the soul, starting with metaphors and images from
the different times and places imagined by poets and thinkers.