Dante, psychoanalysis, and the (erotic) meaning of meaning

The author observes a resemblance between (1) the "polysemous" technique of imputing meaning to reality practiced in medieval biblical studies and in Dante's writing and (2) the technique of interpretation in contemporary psychoanalysis. She explores the roots of this resemblance in the development of intellectual history and provides examples of polysemous meanings in Dante's Divine Comedy, which is in part an autobiographical journey of self-reflection and self-realization (like psychoanalysis). She then suggests some implications of this resemblance for contemporary psychiatry.