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After an introduction to this 1964 talk, some considerations on the logic of interpretation in psychoanalysis and in clinical work are made. Among other things, the role of intuition and the ability of making predictions in terms of probability are discussed, as well as the relationship between clinical and empirical research. (This paper is the transcription of the audiorecording of a talk given at the Fourth training course of the "Milan Group for the Advancement of Psychotherapy" - which since the 1970s took the name of Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane - entitled "Theoretical problems and clinical cases", held in Milan on May 1-4, 1964; after the paper the discussion that followed this talk is published, with interventions by Silvano Arieti, Enzo Codignola, Franco Fornari, Luigi Frighi, Pier Francesco Galli, Mario Moreno, Diego Napolitani, and Enzo Spaltro). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intent of this paper is to rethink, through the mythological figure of Pan, the “Goat god”, a possible reading of some dynamics of the modern world, the same highlighted by the studies dedicated by Girard to mimetic conflict. In this sense, particular attention is devoted to the themes of “double”, “undifferentiated” and “monstrous”. Furthermore, an attempt is made to proceed in an interdisciplinary way, taking into consideration also the convergence between empirical research and René Girard’s theory, demonstrating the link between mirror neurons (neurosciences) and mimetic theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a reflection on the policy of cost-cutting and spending review in the Italian public sectors. The thesis is twofold. First of all, the paradigm used by the spending reviews' policies is based on the macro-economic theory that doesn't take into account the complexity of the implementation processes. Secondly, the weakness of the administrative technical bureaucracies in coordinating modernisation processes produces an incoherent diffusion of innovations. The paper discusses, as empirical examples, two relevant national programmes in the field of the judicial sector; these programmes are mobilising an interesting governance network at the territorial (local) level and a vast number of projects in specific territorial areas. The implementation of these interventions shows, however, that many judicial offices of the Nation lack the necessary resources and capabilities to sustain modernisation projects and, at the same time, the difficulty of central bureaucracies to oversee and safeguard a coherent fulfilment of the diffusion objectives, due to the fragility of technical bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, beside the traditional passive labour market policies, a broad range of measures and actions related to active labour market policies have gained increasing importance. On the one hand, this evolution opens up interesting perspectives in terms of processes of empowerment of citizens. On the other, it also raises important issues about the effectiveness of employment services. Indeed, the shift of the axis of the policies from the macro dimension of huge public interventions to the micro dimension of specifically population targeted actions represents a challenge both for employment services and, to some extent, also for policy evaluation. The latter, in particular profiting from a critical use of the conceptual tools developed among the realist perspective, can empirically test the validity of the activation rhetoric. In order to offer some thoughts in this direction, this paper presents the results of the evaluation of an active labour market programme, which has been operating in recent years in a particularly low inclusive labour market area: Southern Italy. The assessment focuses on the processes produced by the programme, the mechanisms characterizing its implementation, their interaction with the local contexts and the unexpected results generated by the actions carried out. It aims at providing a useful analytical framework to identify advantages and weaknesses of active labour market policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]