L’efficacia del desiderio in Simone Weil

In this article I face the ambivalence of the desire in Simone Weil’s thinking. From the analysis of the mechanisms that condition and ‘imprison’ the human psyche, Simone Weil stresses the importance of the education of the desire as the first movement of the soul, and the fact that it compels us to make a decisive choice between eating and contemplating the object of love. To orient the desire is to orient an essential energy towards the ‘quality’ and the ‘depth’ of our very life. Theatre and fairy tales in particular have always contributed to show us the contradictory character of feelings, to warn us against the arrogance of an unbridled desire and to show us at the same time the possibility of a fullness that derives from a ‘renouncement’ that leads to the preservation of what we love.