Psychology and Literature: the Consciousness of Zeno by Italo Svevo

The present work aims to address the role that psychology plays within literary works starting from a "critical" reading aimed at understanding and recognizing the psychological and in some works also psychopathological traits present within the texts. Our goal will be to present the conscious and unconscious aspects of the various characters and identify the reasons that prompted the author to create and analyze certain psychological issues and certain environmental situations. The methodology that will be used will mainly be that indicated by Professor Antonio Fusco which aims and which tends to enhance the contribution of the Author's conscious Ego, of the emotional centers and of the unconscious contents of the mind following in part the line of the psychiatrist Silvano Arieti who in one of his main works illustrates the concept of “tertiary thinking” and sees it as a synthesis of unconscious, endoceptual and conceptual elements [1]. The aspects that will allow you to better understand the facets of a literary work will be reading, knowledge of the author's biography and identifying with the characteristic features of the characters. On the relationship between mind, art, literature and psychoanalysis over time we have had numerous contributions from not only Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, but also many other authors. Just think of the various writers who have dealt with very important psychological and psychoanalytic themes through their novels; in the present work we will limit our attention to a psychological investigation of the work Zeno's conscience by Italo Svevo. Through the analysis of the characters and their inner life, it will be our task to be able to make the reader identify completely with the life described by the authors of the literary works. In this perspective, the psychologist will try to work alongside the traditional literary critic with the sole propose of providing a further humble investigative contribution. In conclusion, it can be said that the thread that binds psychology to many literary works is very thin.