Cultivating Ethical Spaces: The Legacy of Donna Orange

It is difficult to summarize in a few lines the influence Donna Orange has had on us, our thinking, and our practice. The very fact that Gestalt Review dedicates a tribute to her is a clear testimony that her influence transcended the boundaries of psychoanalysis. The first thing we would like to mention is that her writings were for us the gateway into intersubjective psychoanalysis; we remember, in particular, the great joy of finding a common language in a different and, at times, in some ways, foreign land. This feeling was confirmed, even more intensely, in our personal encounter with Donna. We always thought that this feeling of being at home with her was consistent with one of the pivotal concepts of her thought: the hierarchy of intersubjective space, as proposed by Lévinas, in which the Other is always primary. Donna taught us to start from the Other, from her language, from her world, from where she really is. Any other movement already contains a seed of violence, especially in a setting, such as therapy, where the dimension of power is by definition asymmetrical. It has also made us alert to the fact that we are never immune from this risk. Indeed, the safer we feel (from the Latin sine cura, i.e., without care), the more we must be vigilant. Donna constantly reminded us that violence is a subtle phenomenon, often present in an invisible and normalized way, which is why it is so pervasive and dangerous. Sensitivity to the dimensions of violence implicit in social relationships is not only an important awareness transversal to psychotherapeutic approaches but it also transcends the clinic, expanding into critical social and cultural reflection.A second, central element is that responsibility toward the other, responding to the call of her face, does not mean flattening differences. With Donna, we could disagree and not lose her, not lose ourselves. Here, too, personal experience is consistent with another of her theoretical fundamentals: dialogue implies the recognition and respect of difference. A very necessary and urgent message in a time of uncritical adhesions or irreparable splits. The last exchange with her was at the international conference we organized, bringing Gestalt therapy, relational, intersubjective, and post-Bionian psychoanalysis into dialogue on the theme of field theory. Donna was the discussant of our presentation, and this dialogue will be published by Routledge (Francesetti, Gecele, and Migone). We want to quote a passage from her comments, referring to the role of the therapist: “It replaces the expert with one who accompanies, one who provides the quality of space for the other’s wisdom to emerge. When I shut down my inner Besserwisser, the know-it-all person who always knows better, I may be able to tune in to the wisdom or to the emotion of the room and respond to that. Then the patient may not feel crowded by me or by my agenda.”Thank you, Donna Orange, for teaching us to make space for the Other in the encounter, warning us of the risk of invisible violence present in every intersubjective space.