As the Gospels tell us, after the Last Supper Jesus retreats to a small field just outside the city of Jerusalem: Gethsemane, the olive grove. His prayers are interrupted when Judas arrives with a group of armed men, and kisses him. The kiss, given to point Jesus out to the guards, has become a powerful symbol of the wrenching experience of betrayal, and abandonment. Betrayed by his disciples, even by Peter, the most faithful of them all, Jesus is forsaken. His sin, to have drawn God closer to man.

In The Night in Gethsemane, Massimo Recalcati, one of Italy’s highest regarded psychoanalysts, traces the relationship between biblical text and psychoanalytical theory, revealing human life in all its fragility and its agony.

Praise

“A brilliant, stirring analysis.”—La Stampa

“A book that reads in less than two hours but stays with you forever.”—Il Foglio

“Lively and sharp . . . an invitation to look positively at the loneliness of human experience.”—Lettera

Massimo Recalcati
Massimo Recalcati is a psychoanalyst and author who teaches at the universities of Pavia and Verona.