The Night in Gethsemane: On Solitude and Betrayal

As the Gospels tell, after the Last Supper Jesus retreated to a small field just outside the city of Jerusalem: Gethsemane, the olive grove. His prayers are interrupted when Judas arrives with a group of armed men, and kisses him. The kiss, given to point Jesus out to the guards, has become a powerful symbol of the wrenching experience of betrayal, and abandonment. Betrayed by his disciples--even by Peter, the most faithful--Jesus is forsaken. His sin is to have drawn God closer to man. In The Night in Gethsemane, Massimo Recalcati, one of Italy's most highly regarded psychoanalysts, traces the relationship between biblical text and psychoanalytical theory, revealing human life in all its fragility and its agony.