Published: October 2026

Keywords:
Pietro Barbetta; Antigone; aesthetics; ritual; myth; real presence; the sacred; Ancient Greek tragedy; patriarchy; Law; representation; sensation; affect; embodied experience; Antonin Artaud; delusion; art; play; community; clinical practice.

Pietro Barbetta

Past director of the Milan Center of Family Therapy, current director of the International School of Systemic Therapy in Transcultural Contexts (ISST).

He has published, among others, Locura y Creacion (2016, Gedisa) with U. Telfener, Complessità e psicoterapia (2019, Raffaello Cortina), and with M. E. Cavagnis, I. B. Krause and U. Telfener, Ethical and Aesthetic Exploration of Systemic Practices (2022 Routledge).

pietro.barbetta@unibg.it

Abstract

Inspired by his new book, Una Tomba per Antigone. Clinica per delirio… (A Tomb for Antigone. A Clinical Approach to Borderline Delusion), and honouring the devotion of Maria Pantelaki to myth, ritual, and Ancient Tragedy, Pietro Barbetta speaks about Tragedy and the ancient Dionysian rituals, where the sacred is not merely “represented” or “representing” but experienced as a real presence (παρουσία/paroussia).

Drawing inspiration and ways of living from Friedrich Nietzsche and Antonin Artaud, he connects Antigone with the birth of Patriarchy, the imposition of Law, and humanity’s gradual estrangement from nature, community, and the experience of the sacred. Through the unexpected, “rhizomatic” movements of his thought - from ancient theatre and psychoanalysis to Balinese theatre and critiques of contemporary civilisation - Barbetta proposes a radical thought: perhaps the problem of modernity is that we have learned to perceive everything as “representation” rather than as living, sensuous presences within the very processes of living, where art, play, body, and community remain inseparable.

Next is a video recording of the discussion with the audience following the screening of Pietro Barbetta’s video presentation.