Formazione e trasformazione. Il desiderio di forma in un essere che nasce privo di forma esistenziale

What is our personal singularity? We often think of it as something that remains “identical” as the hours, days, and years of our existence pass by. Others have turned to the idea of “psychological continuity” (Derek Parfit) or “innate image” (James Hillman). In what follows, I show that our personal singularity cannot be conceived of in terms of identity, continuity, or even an innate image, because it assumes form unpredictably through deviations, falls, mistakes, traumas, ruptures, or transformations. What defines the personal singularity is the uniqueness of an expressive pathway made up of ruptures and discontinuities, through which each of us attempts to overcome the self-referential perspective of our social self, to be reborn in the encounter with the other, and to assume form in caring relationships. This expressive pathway is the result of the “craft of living” of a being who comes into the world without having finished being born, and who finds herself lacking an existential form. Such an existential form is molded by practices of emotional sharing and by a desire that does not refer back to predetermined models.