Amor, ch’a nullo amante amar perdona…

Abstract

In the Symposium, Plato states that love is desire to know. Both philosophy and psychoanalysis regard love as relating to the subject’s identity, to the relationship with others, and to the relationship to death. This article investigates the first two aspects, in order to look for the origin and the deep meaning of the apparently paradoxical manifestations of love. After examining the contributions of Hegel, Schopenhauer, Freud, Lacan, and Barthes, three claims are put forward: 1. in love desire is always satisfied in a hallucinatory way; 2. this gives rise to a reversal of identity between the lover and the beloved (hence the transformation of Dante’s verse that gives the title to the article); 3. it is not lack that creates desire, rather, it is the (transcendental) desire that creates lack. Giovanni Gentile’s position on love provides a way to confirm this last thesis.