The cats council - In this fairy tale, that can be considered a metaphor of the psychological issue of dependency, Paul Parin imagines that long time ago cats were always clinging to humans, in a relationship of mutual satisfaction. However, due to some unhappy events, cats run away from humans, and in a "Cats Council" they decided to pretend to be autonomous, independent and full of pride because this was the only way to gain the love of humans. This fairy tale is published in order to remember Paul Parin, who died on May 18, 2009, at the age of 92. Parin has always been an active member of the editorial board of Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane and part of the project of the journal, where he wrote several papers.
Beside being a psychoanalyst and an anthropologist, and giving important contributions to the field of ethno-psychoanalysis, he was also a fiction writer. Paul Parin’s life and work are summarized in a brief editorial note at the beginning of this paper.
KEY WORDS: fairy tale, dependency, independency, autonomy, pride