Man and Ideas

Abstract

The article “Storia di un'amicizia” (Story of a friendship) by Pier Luigi Pagani is a personal and professional tribute to Francesco Parenti, a central figure in Italian individual psychology. Avoiding eulogies or simple biographical accounts, Pagani chooses to portray Parenti through anecdotes and shared moments, offering a vivid and human portrait of the colleague and friend with whom he worked for over thirty years. The story begins with their first informal encounters in childhood, before establishing the true beginning of their friendship in the post-war period, during their university years in Pavia. Pagani describes the difficulties young doctors faced in finding work in 1950s Italy, highlighting Parenti's role as a promoter of innovative and courageous trade union movements, such as the Libera Associazione Medica (LAM) and the Associazione Milanese Medici Mutualisti. Parenti stood out for his ‘sense of freedom’ and determination in defending the rights of his colleagues, qualities that led him to hold important positions in medical organizations and to clash with even the most conservative institutions. The collaboration between the two was strengthened by their scientific and literary writing, culminating in the publication of works such as 'Dal mito alla Psicoanalisi. Storia della psichiatria" (From Myth to Psychoanalysis: History of Psychiatry) and the founding of the AAMUS (Ambrosian Academy of Humanist Doctors and Writers). At the same time, their passion for psychology led them to found the Italian Society of Individual Psychology (SIPI) in 1969, inspired by Adlerianism and recognized internationally. The article concludes with the successful organization of the 12th International Congress of Individual Psychology in Milan and the international recognition of Parenti, who was elected to the board of the International Association of Individual Psychology. Pagani closes his account by emphasizing the values of friendship, loyalty, and tenacity that have characterized their shared history, paying tribute to Parenti as a man and a thinker.