Beyond the Pit and the Pendulum
Stefano U. Baldassarri, Ph.D., Director, ISI Florence
An introduction to the third issue of Beyond
When abroad, especially at a young age and for the first time, people can feel trapped, as if they had fallen into a pit and were subject to a constant, unpleasant swing between states of mind that are only apparently distant from one another: anxiety and depression, excitement and frustration. To break this sort of spell and (to borrow from Edgar Allan Poe’s imagery once again) climb out of this “cave” of emotional as well as social exclusion, trustworthy adults can serve as a great resort — a lifeline, if you will…