STEVEN B. HERRMANN. 2007. "Luigi Zoja: Cultivating the Sour Review of Luigi Zoja, Cultivating the Soul London:Free Association London,2005, JUNG JOURNAL: CULTURE & PSYCHE, 1:4, 83-90. The author follows an interconnected thread between the notions of Nemesis and hybris in Luigi Zoja's major books and papers. Herrmann argues that for Zoja, true (tragic) narratives are necessary for psychotherapists and analysts as well as for culture generally; for without narratives, psychic life cannot be perceived as unfolding beneath the aegis of myth. The great teacher of life, Zoja asserts, is tragic drama; the aim of epic poetry; is to infuse a dose of moral consciousness, a sense of moderation, and an awareness of proper limitations. Through Zoja's reading of Homer's Odyssey, Herrmann introduces Zoja's psychological rendering of the text, a reading that does poetic, as well as analytic, justice to an old myth. In Zoja's masterful retelling, Odysseus can be seen as a violent, yet admirable father figure, a structure of the Self that knows how to transform the passion of hybris into a psychological awareness of limits. As long as men continue to perpetuate the cycle of violence, they will miss the psychological meaning of Nemesis. The story of Odysseus is an Eros narrative nothing less than the master analytic narrative. The story contains an image of the transformation of consciousness that takes place in Odysseus's palace. In Odysseus's palace, a cultura animi, or culture of cultivation of the soul, takes place-a coniunctio between Penelope, Odysseus, and Telemachus-that is simultaneously in and of the world. By reading the story of Telemachus's father-loss and empathically feeling into his pain and longing for his father's return home, we can come to recognize the symptom of father-absence as a companion that may accompany the very transformation the analyst needs to facilitate. Most importantly, Zoja shows us that new images of the father are needed in society.
