Istituto Lombardo - Accademia di Scienze e Lettere - Incontri di Studio

SALUTO DEL PRESIDENTE DELL’ISTITUTO LOMBARDO

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INTRODUZIONE

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FAUSTINO SAVOLDI: L’UOMO, L’AMICO, LO STUDIOSO

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On January 14, 2016, Faustino Savoldi, a member of the Istituto Lombardo and one of the protagonists of the Pavia and Italian neurological sciences in the second half of the twentieth century was missing. Born in Brescia on July 4, 1930, after his high school studies in his hometown, he enrolled in the medical faculty of Pavia in 1949 where he took the first steps of his scientific career, graduating in 1955, under the guidance of Carlo Berlucchi. Probably influenced by the master he turned to the electrophysiological study of the nervous system and soon became one of the pioneers of experimental electroencephalography. The research sectors he sponsored were those related to clinical and experimental epilepsy, to the pathogenesis of vertigo, to language disorders, to the taxonomic nosography of headaches, to physiological and pathological neuroendocrine mechanisms, to cerebrovascular diseases. A scholar with vast interests, he published important essays for the critical interpretation of various neuropsychiatric topics, also evaluated from a philosophical perspective. At the same time his university career flourished culminating with the chair of Neurology at the University of Pavia and the scientific direction of the Neurological Institute Casimiro Mondino until 1989. In the last years, after retirement, Savoldi had dedicated himself to a titanic enterprise, to write a treatise on the problem of consciousness, which came to an end in 2013. The present essay outlines his scientific and human figure.

COMPLESSITÀ E COSCIENZA: DALLA TEORIA AL LETTO DEL PAZIENTE

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We normally assess consciousness in other individuals based on their ability to interact with the surrounding environment. A the same time, we all know very well that consciousness can be generated entirely within the brain, even in the absence of any interaction with the external world; this happens almost every night when we dream. Because of this fundamental discrepancy, the presence of consciousness may go undetected in brain-injured patients who emerge from coma but remain unresponsive. Developing a reliable, objective measure of the capacity for consciousness is one of the grand challenges for medical science. A challenge that we need to take on and face successfully for the sake of all the patients who survive coma through intensive care medicine. Besides, we may one day have to face the question of whether future artificial intelligence is just a useful zombie or a somehow conscious entity. According to a recently formulated theory, consciousness depends on a special kind of complexity in physical systems, on a unique balance between unity and diversity. Today, empirical measures inspired by this theory can help us in detecting a covert capacity for consciousness in patients who are otherwise completely isolated from the external world. Will they help us, one day, to understand how can a few pounds of jelly matter host the universe of a dream?

PERCHÉ È COSÌ DIFFICILE PER LA SCIENZA AFFRONTARE IL TEMA DELLA COSCIENZA E DEI SUOI RAPPORTI COL CERVELLO?

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It is evident to everyone, even to non-professionals, that human consciousness raises a major problem in Science and therefore in Neuroscience. So much so that today we try in every way to eliminate consciousness as pure epiphenomenon or to completely reduce it to the brain. The article specifies first the scientific method and discusses the possible limits of applicability to the field of consciousness. Then tries to show the elusive nature every definition of human consciousness has. Finally, it recalls a quote from the monumental work of Prof. Savoldi on “La Coscienza”, a fundamental passage that clarifies beyond ambiguity, with the help of Pascal, the only cognitive modality (comprehension) that allows one to approach the conscience and which can not be the experimental method.

LA HYBRIS, SINDROME NEUROPATOLOGICA CHE FAVORISCE IL DETERIORARSI DELL’ECOSISTEMA CHE PUÒ PRELUDERE ALLA “SESTA ESTINZIONE”

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The term “hubris” is used here to indicate the consequence of the Mis-Exaptation of inner speech, which becomes so self-referential and impetuous that the individual is led to believe that he is omnipotent and that the entire ecosystem is not an “end”, but only a “means” through which he can achieve an objective that he deems, erroneously, to be extremely important to him. We present the innovative hypothesis that a positive feedback loop is established between the deterioration of the ecosystem and the onset of the neuropathological syndrome of “hubris”, which is deemed to be caused by alterations in the integrative functions of brain circuits. We suggest that this vicious circle is sustained by environmental toxins and the impoverishment of the ecosystem, which cause neuro-degeneration and, more generally, impair the integrative action of brain circuits. The consequence envisioned is that this positive feedback loop, which at present is not only uncontrolled but actually potentiated by the socio-economic context, may give rise to the “Sixth Extinction”.

METAMORFOSI DELL’ANIMA. CORPO, VITA E COSCIENZA

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The reflection on the notion of consciousness that Faustino Savoldi has carried out for many years, and whose greatest result is the work La coscienza, published in 2013, had continued after this publication. In personal conversations with him, we had come to the idea that the problem of consciousness and the question of the relationship between mind and body should be addressed in the light of a meditation on the concept of life. Unfortunately there was no time to complete this work. This essay tries to outline some theoretical assumptions to continue in any case along the direction glimpsed by Savoldi, and to bring forward his intellectual legacy.

LA FOLLIA DENTRO L’UMANESIMO

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Psychiatry is considered to be part of the Sciences de l’Homme (Human Sciences) which, in the meaning attributed to them by Jean Piaget, unite the disciplines that have the whole person as their “object”. Schematically, they include the body, the personality and the relational, or social, environment. The late Faustino Savoldi is an example of a neurologist who dealt with both the phenomenological and the psychoanalytic views. His great work, La coscienza (“The Conscience”), indeed provides an integrated view of neurology and psychiatry, as well as both together with the phenomenological vision. This is a synthesis which is a necessary catalyst to ensure that madness is integrated as a human science, understood as the great framework that holds together man and the world.

DISCUSSIONE FINALE

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