In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Psicologia e psichiatria nelle cause matrimoniali canoniche by Gianfrancesco Zuanazzi
  • Eduard Giurgi
Psicologia e psichiatria nelle cause matrimoniali canoniche, 2d ed., by Gianfrancesco Zuanazzi. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2012. Pp. 1-563.

What does the matrimonial consent need to be totum humanum? What can impede the matrimonial consent to be totum humanum? These seem to be the major questions to which the present book gives valuable answers. It is the work of maturity of Zuanazzi, as Monsignor Stankiewicz states in the preface of the book, in which is reflected an entire life of study and professional work in the field of psychiatry. The book is divided in four parts and eleven chapters. In the first part, which encompasses the first two chapters, there is a presentation of certain anthropological concepts that are indispensable for a correct interpretation and use of psychology and psychiatry in the canonical field of matrimonial consent. Then this part continues with a discussion on two other important concepts regarding the personality; namely, normality and pathology.

The second part is formed by four chapters and treats psychological and psychopathological aspects of the matrimonial consent paying special attention to the main psychic disorders that can affect the matrimonial consent. The third part of the book has two chapters in which there are presented the main sexual disorders and dysfunctions which can affect the matrimonial [End Page 669] consent. The last part of the book contains three chapters dealing with the most important probative tools in marriage nullity cases, such as, the declarations of the parties and of the witnesses, and the psychiatric expertise.

The author uses in his book documents of the Second Vatican Council and of the Holy See, but also a vast literature of philological and psychiatric specialty providing an excellent tool for people working in the canonical field, especially for those working in tribunals and who have to deal with the nullity grounds stated in canons 1095, 1084, 1097, § 2, 1103 of the 1983 Code of Canon of Canon Law.

Eduard Giurgi
Judicial Vicar
Bucharest, Romania
...

pdf

Share