51社区

Abstract

Novelist Henry James illuminated the enigmatic nature of the human condition when he wrote, 鈥淭he whole of anything is never told.鈥� This autoethnographic research project was initially conceptualized to interpret the content of a profound personal encounter with Michelangelo鈥檚 four marble statues known as聽The Four Prisoners聽on June 8, 2022, at the Galleria dell鈥橝ccademia, Florence, Italy. My septuagenarian life pilgrimage aggregated seemingly disparate events鈥攎arriage; parenthood; divorce; vocational and avocational pursuits; two visits to Florence, Italy (in 1970 and 2022); and an exploration in 2022 of eight World War II (WWII) European Theater airfields where my father served in England, France, and Germany鈥攖hat merged into an integrated journey of transformation, culminating in a profound existential experience. This research project examined, at least in part, the process of meaning-making wherein聽The Four Prisoners聽functioned as聽a symbolic catalyst for transformative self-understanding; existential intersubjective communion with my long-deceased father; and existential transgenerational intersubjective communion with Michelangelo and his father, Lodovico Buonarroti, and Sigmund Freud and his father, Jacob Freud. Additionally, this study investigated the relationship between Michelangelo鈥檚 artistic expression in聽The Four Prisoners聽and the practice of psychotherapy. The research embraced multiple areas of investigation and specific questions focused on the inquiry. This study鈥檚 unique lens of inquiry added to the extant published research on the impact of Michelangelo鈥檚聽The Four Prisoners聽on applied psychology and the conscious and unconscious dimensions of our shared human experience.