The Children And The Lies
In a poor hut on a cold night, rich with stars high in the sky; there is a woman and her son Amahl. There is a knock at the door. The mother: "Amahl, go and see who's knocking on the door." Amahl: "Mum, outside the door there is...there is a king with a crown on his head." The mother: "Stop telling lies." Another knock. The mother: "go back and see who it is and what they want." Amahl hurries back to the door. He opens it slightly and looks outside. He closes it and returns to his mother. Amahl: "Mum, I didn't tell you the truth before..." The mother: "there's a good boy!" Amahl: "There isn't a king outside at all..." The mother: "I should think not." Amahl: "There are two kings!" The mother: "Oh! What can I do with the child like you, what can I do!" (Another knock). "Go quickly and see who it is and see what happens if you continue to lie!" (once again, Amahl goes to the door and has to come back). Amahl: "Mum...Mum...Come, come here, if I tell you the truth you just won't believe me". The mother: "Do you know you are a strange boy!". Amahl: "You never believe me!". The mother: "I will believe you if you tell me the truth". Amahl: "I admit that there aren't two kings at the door". The mother: "Oh, really??!!" Amahl: "There are three and one is black like coffee".
From "Amahl and the nocturnal guests" by Gian Carlo Menotti.
Childhood takes its origin from the symbolic code of the universe. It isn't the pre-existing world that gives birth to the child, but it is the child who creates the world and he does it as God created humans, in his own image. Therefore, the lie of the child has a profound meaning of rebellion (consisting of a rejection of the rules of the adult world that is blinded by the banality and repetitiveness of life) and a suggestion (in which the child is the bearer of a new vision of the world, which, because born with him, is a completely fresh and unique gift of life). He is the prophet of a new and extraordinarily unique world, "to enter in his knowledge it is necessary to disobey, it is necessary to employ "clever disobedience" of the child who like a little Prometheus, steals the matches. He runs in fields and when he finds a corner, helped by his friends, he sets up the hearth for those playing truant" G. Bachelard. Therefore the lie is like disobedience and disobedience is like a form of knowledge. For the adult who is able to listen to the child who tells a lie, he will see a child who is telling him a new and engrossing story, a story that represents the way he sees things and this enables the adult to discover his desire to approach himself. The lie presents a challenge which is the request from a child to be trusted, that has to happen without judgment and fear. The problem is that the adult considers himself to be in the right position and suggests that the child follows the "already lived life", which means that the child has to accept and has to submit to the rules of the adult world. Once that the adult has established the rules that determine the future of a man, the child will follow them and in doing so the pure and naïve infancy will disappear and standardized thought will take its place. However the infancy will eventually come out and show us the trickery that we felt and, for whoever wants to hear, the infancy gives us the possibility to rediscover a new world that is more similar with the human essence.
It is true that children can know more than what they can express. Polanyi speaks about "unexpressed knowledge": the original and natural dimension of knowledge is the lack of expression, the silence. As Bachelard affirms, the imagination is former to the memory. The original act is just an imagination: the imagination is the first dimension of the psyche. Referring to the dialogue in the story, we can conclude by saying: if the adult who lives in poverty in his hut (intended as the "I" of the man) will let himself believe in what the child sees, Amahl will hear, on a cold night rich with stars high in the sky, knocking at the door and it is only he, who will have the possibility to open the door to the magic of the universe. In order for us to also experience a beautiful Epiphany, we just need to trust him.
Dr Antonia Murgo - Psychologist and Psychoanalyst
