A successful British writer, Jasper White, decides at the age of forty not to write novels again. What will you do with your need to keep writing “something”? You still have the need to name, of using words to shape things that need to be expressed. So you decide to become “copyist”. He will make portraits of living people. And it won't make any description. How will you capture the essence of a person in words?

Thus begins the magnificent novel Mr White from the renowned Italian writer Alessandro Baricco (1958). Apart from its undeniable literary quality, to whom we are interested in him Focusing this novel gives us a novel vision of the symbolization of experience, nuclear for Focusing processes. Mr White, the main writer, is found on the front pages by chance at a portrait exhibition, and when reading the gallery's catalog, he is surprised to know how the painter of the paintings works. Mr Gwyn discovers something special:

Jasper Gwyn thought it must have taken a lot of time, a certain exile, as well as the dissolution of many resistances. He did not think of any technical tricks, nor did the painter's eventual mastery seem important., it only occurred to him that a patient action had set himself a goal, and in the end what he had managed to obtain was take back home to that man with a mustache. It seemed a very beautiful gesture. (Page 36)

And from there he embarks on an adventure in which he prepares a space taking care of all sensory aspects and creates an atmosphere where he can take portraits.. Capture the essence of a person in such a way that, como says Baricco, take the person home. It is inevitable to think about the Focusing process, and how through a welcoming and friendly presence it helps to symbolize the experience, so that the process is carried forward (a little closer to home, as Baricco would say). And regarding the process of symbolizing, offers a surprising opening (that I will not reveal here, because that belongs to the development of the novel itself).

For all this, essential for people interested in the Focusing process.

I am sure that at least it will help you to ask many new questions. And if you know other novels (or movies) that inspire us regarding Focusing, Nonviolent Communication or psychotherapy, Tell me about them and I will make your entries.

I wish you a pleasant reading,

Xavier

Bibliographic data: Baricco, Alessandro (2011): Mr White. Milan: Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore. Translation into Spanish by Xavier González Rovira (2012): Mr White. Barcelona: Anagram. Go to Anagrama publishing house, where you can read the first pages of the novel.