El secreto del hijo

The psychoanalyst Massimo Recalcati addresses the change that has occurred in our society when the verticality that governed parent-child relationships has been questioned and has been replaced by the horizontality of empathic parents, friends and confidants. Obviously, the author does not propose a return to authoritarianism and the tyrannical model of Father Padrone, but he does question the results of the weakening of parental moral authority sponsored by the supposedly progressive educational model, which turns the son into a prince to whom everything is grants and consents. To address this issue, he turns to two conflicting myths: that of the Oedipus of Sophocles and that of the biblical parable of the prodigal son of Luke. And, along with them, that of Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac and that of the Shakespearean Hamlet, as well as the reflections of philosophers like Kierkegaard and psychoanalysts like Freud and Lacan.