ABSTRACT
The mythological tale of the Aloadae, a classical metaphor for concretism, is presented. Borges: we are not actors in our lives, but spectators; there is a deeper ‘ego’ which always observes and remains able to move forward and to live, whatever the circumstances. In Bach’s Violin Sonata no. 5, the melodic, passionate voice of the violin alternates with the cyclical, circular voice of the harpsichord. The harmony between linear and circular time suggests the responsibility of viewing desire as mystery, and the discipline of constant interaction and self-questioning. Listening to both voices requires discipline, on the threshold of absolute possession and consumption of the object. Knowledge of the most dissimilar images conceived by humankind, remaining without any claim to knowledge on the interface between inner and outer, draws the human being close to its complexity. The mirror metaphor of the mystical Neo-Platonic tradition (Rumi, Dante): between love for the divine and the love of knowledge, the ego is forged by the symbolic experience of the processes, taking whatever form sight confers on it until it achieves its own. The inner spectator is present and active in the experience of pain and, if asked, could give surprising assistance to the clinical evidence-based approach.
