The word that heals. The reencounter with the poetic voice in Alda Merini's scriptural elaboration of psychic suffering and the experience of the asylum

Abstract

The article explores the healing function of literary writing in the context of psychic suffering and asylum confinement, focusing on the case of the Italian poet Alda Merini (1931-2009) and three of her works, written during or shortly after her confinement in the psychiatric hospital. We propose that writing, in its being acted, is at the same time horizon, medium and result of the healing of the poet's link with her voice between the extremes of scream and silence that reign in the asylum. This happens through the following stages: the reopening of the communication channel (Letters to Dr. G., a correspondence to the therapist), the reactivation of the generative capacity of the word in spite of obstructions and silencing (The Holy Earth, a collection of poems), the reiterated expression of the trauma as a personal confrontation and public denunciation of the horrors experienced (The Other Truth, a diary).