Pinocchio: In search of the original

The author draws upon a clinical vignette from therapy for a child born by medically-assisted procreation from a frozen zygote, to show the existential need the child unconsciously feels to be told a story about where he came from. Because biotechnologies are saturated by an objectifying medical discourse, they crush parents’ ability to elaborate a creative mythological tale establishing the child in humanizing chain of life. In this clinical case, the story of Pinocchio was the clue that made it possible to articulate the deficiency of symbols with a quest for identity that could only be expressed by wounds to the body.