In search of Beatrice

This special book is part of a series of “enlighted” titles on psychology and human sciences, dealing with the relationship between the psyche, creativity, and the historical and psychosocial dimensions of life. The book illustrates the connections between psychoanalysis, or “Depth Psychology” (particularly C.G. Jung’s analytical psychology) and the anthropological vision of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. This is the new edition of a text on psychoanalysis and literature that has had considerable success since its appearance in the 1990s and is still quoted in literary and scientific journals. The Divine Comedy is a text full of meanings, which are “stratified” on multiple levels: from the literal to the allegorical, from the moral to the one concerning psychological and spiritual symbolism. Adriana Mazzarella re-examines the itinerary of Dante in the light of Jung’s discoveries (analytical psychology, archetypes, etc.). Our Edition is a posthumous work (she passed away early in 2015). The text is of great interest for psychologists and psychotherapists, but also for passionate readers and students of psychology, philosophy, literature, and for general audiences.