Friendship is a basic sentiment that concerns everyone. It links us with others but doesn’t exclude solitude, of which indeed it is the central part. It is both a miraculous source of joy and a fragile balance that has to be protected, cared for, nurtured. It is an ancestral sentiment composed of infinite nuances, susceptible to change depending on elements such as the time of life, gender, characters, as well as external, familial, social and historic conditions.
Last but not least, friendship is of significant interest in psychiatry, particularly in this post-pandemic phase, and plays an important role in therapy.
The words of great thinkers, poets, and authors from Friedrich Nietzsche to Emily Dickinson accompany Eugenio Borgna in this all-embracing reflection on the sentiment of friendship, to better capture its meaning and value.
Eugenio Borgna is Director Emeritus of Psychiatry of the University Hospital Maggiore of Novara.
