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This comment on Bottaccioli & Bottaccioli’s (2024a) article critically analyzes Franz Alexander’s role in developing contemporary psychosomatics in both its innovative aspects and limitations. On the one hand, Alexander contributed to emancipating the explanation of physical symptoms from the classical approach of the early 20th century stiffened on the model of hysterical conversion and promoted the organization of the international psychosomatic movement, including the Italian one. On the other hand, his limitations mainly concern the theoretical approach typical of 20th century psychoanalysis: adopting a one-dimensional model centered on intrapsychic conflict and the indeterminacy – necessary for the time – of a biological “X” factor as mediator. Instead, in the second half of the 20th century, a deficit-centered model of explanation (e.g., alexithymia) and complexity (e.g., biopsychosocial model) emerged, in which various moderating biomedical, psychological, and socio-cultural factors assume different relative weights in the explanation of physical illnesses and the clinical management of patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sixty years after the death of Franz Alexander, it is necessary to investigate what is alive and what is dead in his thought about psychosomatics, focusing in particular on the notions of emotion and vegetative neurosis as central to his model of explanation. It is then worth noting, in the light of the developments after Alexander, the today’s difficulty in supporting psychosomatics as an autonomous discipline, to the point of questioning the legitimacy of the expression itself: Bottaccioli & Bottaccioli’s (2024a) proposal to identify it with Psycho-Neuro-EndocrineImmunology (PNEI) must be measured in this problematic context. In any case, the always valid need remains, already supported by Alexander, for a unitary, “holistic” consideration of the human being, sick and healthy. However, this is a paradigm that has to be justified and clarified conceptually in the actual role it plays as an inspirer of research and specific explanations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problems posed by Leonardo’s pathographies written by Freud are examined. The historical path of the problem of the relationship between genius and psychopathology is reconstructed, showing that psychoanalysis fits into a very active vein at the end of the 19th century, expressing different theoretical approaches with which Freud relates. The interest for the problem then continued, with alternate answers, until the current days. The distortions made by Freud in Leonardo’s pathographical description are examined; these distortions are extensively examined by several authors, which, however, is not distant from what Freud implements in his other works, nor from what other pathographists of the time did. It is a common behavior in the history of science and well known in modern epistemology that identifies in the development of theories also the importance of rhetorical tools with which scientists support them. It is emphasized that one cannot read particular psychological aspects in these Freudian behaviors, making in fact a pathography of the author of pathographies, but only lead his work to the coherence of the historical contexts in which he operates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After having tried to reconstruct the nature of Giuseppe Civitarese’s (2023a, 2023b, 2023c) proposal to found intersubjective psychoanalysis on the thought of the philosopher Husserl, and the subsequent discussions by Filippo Maria Ferro & Giuseppe Riefolo (2023) and by Mauro Fornaro (2023a, 20323b), it is proposed to try to reconstruct the history of intersubjectivity in psychoanalysis starting from its foundation by Harry Stack Sullivan who preferred to use the term “interpersonal”. Only after the introduction of the concept of projective identification by Melanie Klein in 1946 and the revisitation of the concept of countertransference by Paula Heimann in 1950, also the psychoanalytic mainstream begun moving in this direction, partly also utilizing the important contribution of those European philosophers who put the topic of intersubjectivity at the center of their work. This is how the analyst’s participation and the co-creation of the session are so important today. This is the context in which such a debate has to be placed and through which it can be further developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is proposed a fine-tuning of the definition of intersubjectivity as inferable by Giuseppe Civitarese (2023a) – especially with regard to the expression “with-being” which is included therein – in order to overcome certain ambiguities within a constructive perspective, also paying particular attention to compatibility with Bion’s notion of group (and therefore of “field”). It is urged also to stick to the most consolidated interpretations of the philosophers mentioned, if their ideas are used in non-philosophical disciplines; in this way it is further attested to Husserl’s unlikely compatibility with psychoanalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of presentification finds an important place in clinical models of trauma. In psychotherapy, do “present moment”, focus on the “here and now” and mindfulness refer to the same semantic field? Or is it sufficient to distinguish its contents through the favorable/maladaptive polarity? Are the concepts of “defensive automatism” and of “defensive style” overlapping? Is maladaptive presentation a metahistorical fact? Does adolescence show always behaviors of maladaptive presentification? The brief critical argument presented in this intervention on Luca Degasperi’s (2023) article starts from the need to clarify the epistemological field of the construct of presentification, suggesting an alternative terminological hypothesis to the maladaptive meaning and a socio-cultural recontextualization of the clinical pictures described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In dialogue with the paper by Civitarese (2023), some reflections are suggested. Intersubjectivity shifts the focus of psychoanalytic interest from the subject to the "intersubject". Psychoanalytic interest, therefore, moves from a study of phenomena toward a continuously unstable and fluid process. Such a process identifies fields and no more tòpoi in which it can organize itself. Our reflection seeks to emphasize the suggestions of Civitarese and, above all, is oriented toward underlining the three levels of intersubjectivity as proposed by Infant Research, preliminary to the more radical positions of Stolorow's group, and then of Jessica Benjamin and of Ogden. Intersubjectivity necessarily identifies a third type of unconscious, which is not only dynamic and pre-reflexive, but above all not validated. Finally, enactments, by disengaging action from acting-out, assume a function of creative evolution in the therapeutic process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author responds to the critical remarks in the comments by Ferro & Riefolo (2023) and by Fornaro (2023). The main points are, in the first comment, the status of reality in psychoanalysis, enactment, the various conceptions of the unconscious, self-disclosure, and the dialogue between philosophy and psychoanalysis. As for the second comment, on the other hand, the issues addressed concern the interpretation of Husserl's contribution to a better definition of the concept of intersubjectivity in psychoanalysis and methodological aspects related to the use of notions derived from speculative thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When narratives become fixed, not open to change or modification, they are expressions of stupidity, as described by Kohon, be it in pathology, psychoanalysis, political discourse, or the present upsurge of identity politics: a symbolic impoverishment that amounts to a collapse of thirdness. The longing for certitudes based on the illusion of completeness, present in all of us, is linked to the ideal ego, an archaic narcissistic fusion with an omnipotent mother. In our work, our identification with Freud as an ego ideal prevents any incestuous acting out of the transferential bond by introducing a symbolic third, difference, and the world of culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mark Solms' revision of the concept of drive represents the latest in a series of his indepth reviews of the most fundamental Freudian concepts. The movement of neuropsychoanalysis begun in 2000 with the first Congress focused precisely on a neuroscientific definition of affects and emotions. In 2013, Solms proposed a substantial and profound modification of Freud's structural model, motivating his theses which argue that the instinctual id can only be conscious. In the current paper, Solms (2021a) reaffirms and re-evaluates the centrality of drive theory in psychoanalysis and neuroscience as a starting point for understanding conscious and unconscious phenomena, in normality as well in pathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The biography of a person allows us to reconstruct his lifestyle, his personality, and this finds correspondence in his thought. The early recollections which, according to Adler, can provide valuable clues like projective tests and dreams cannot be considered a biography and, especially if taken from multiple sources, must be carefully screened and verified. If you don't do it, the Individual Psychology is banalized and discredited. Similarly, the important assessment of the position in the family constellation cannot be simplistically transferred to the fruitful contrast of ideas between Freud and Adler, especially now that there is documentary evidence of their debate and the schism of the psychoanalytic movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the mid-1980s, Sándor Ferenczi's (1873-1933) theories have stirred up a lot of interest also in Italy and motivated the publication of both his scientific papers (of psychoanalytic as well as non-psychoanalytic topics) and his letters. However, a lot of material of both theoretical and historical interest still remains to be translated. Among the many instances of important material that has not been translated into Italian we can mention the third volume of the Freud-Ferenczi letters and the correspondence between Ferenczi and Ernest Jones, and many minor but quite interesting papers. Three of these documents are translated here into Italian for the first time: two short articles and a newly discovered letter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After an epistemological reflection on the necessity of a metapsychology for psychoanalysis, it is pointed out that Howard B. Levine's (2021) representational hypothesis on the problem of trauma leads to rethinking its economic dimension in particular; this is especially true in the light of Freud's last theoretical developments around the concept of trauma and of the technical difficulties of a treatment based only on historical reconstruction. To the extent that trauma is linked to processes of psychic unbinding, it is important to develop a technique apt to repair and reconstruct the symbolic capacities of the patient's ego because of the severity of its structural impairment. Such a reflection implies fundamental questions on the validity of those approaches which, whether they emphasize the representational component or the affective one, are limited to pursuing only hermeneutic or cathartic purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why psychoanalysts came to conceive what Howard Levine (2021) calls a "problematic either-or extremity" between conflict theories and developmental trauma theories? It is hypothesized that at the roots of the polarity between these two different clinical attitudes there is an "originary trauma", a trauma that can never reach a full and effective figurability: a trauma that cannot be represented. Such a trauma constituted the caesura that on the one hand has produced a progress on the intellectual level (in the history of psychoanalysis, the birth of the psychoanalytic theory of unconscious fantasy), but, on the other hand, at the price of creating the lack of development of an affective capacity, not only of a cognitive capacity, of listening the traumaticity within the patient's communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freud's Papers on Technique is commonly thought to collect various essays that reflect Freud's opinions about how a proper psychoanalyst should behave. Accordingly, today's analysts ask themselves whether - or how strictly - they should "obey" the Patriarch's hundred-year-old "rules". This mistakes the overall sense of the book as a book. Freud is reporting an extended, empirical experiment on a radically new type of (psychoanalytic) phenomenon that he had chanced upon. He tries to determine the variables that either provoke or dispel the phenomenon. He is not primarily concerned with theory, efficacy or comfort. The data are often unwelcome, and are thrust upon him. Freud's report is in the form of conditional assertions of fact, as though to say, "if you do X you will produce Y". He has found that the eliciting behaviors often run counter to normal social reflexes, so anyone wishing to reproduce the findings will need graphic alternatives as replacements. There for Freud conveys his results not so much by rules or values, as by metaphors and images that help an analyst adopt an attitude that elicits the phenomenon. Unfortunately, readers are generally unaware of the convergent aim of the book's explorations, though that is what gives those terms their sole and specific purpose. We see readers seize one or another of the papers, pull out this or that familiar cliché or metaphor, and give it whatever rationale they assume "it must have had". Since Freud provided these striking terms and images as aids in marshaling an un-definable and un-prescribable experience, uprooting them from their precise place in the inquiry turns guide-posts into loose lumber. The result is fruitless debate circling personal taste and opinion, and tragic loss of access to a delicate and unnatural experience that will never be encountered without a deliberate plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper by Elizabeth Allison & Peter Fonagy (2016) “When is truth relevant?” (translated in issue no. 1/2020 of Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane) is discussed from the viewpoint of cognitive therapy, in particular of the recent cognitivist perspective influenced by the contributions of the Italian researchers Vittorio Guidano and Giovanni Liotti and by attachment theory. This new perspective within cognitive therapy includes a constructivist approach to knowledge and values the intersubjective dimension of mental processes, with an emphasis to the role of the therapeutic relationship in the treatment strategies. The theoretical and clinical aspects of a dialogue between the cognitivist and the psychodynamic approaches are discussed, in particular regarding the concepts of “truth” and “epistemic trust”; cognitivist and the psychodynamic approaches have specific differences, but old oppositions could be overcome and these two approaches can come closer to each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses Simona Argentieri's paper highlighting the importance of reflection in terms of Freud's metapsychology and theory of instincts. He emphasizes the importance of Freud's concept of development, which is indispensable for explaining the shift towards "pregenitality", polymorphous perversion, "neo-sexuality" (McDougall) as well as the importance of the concept of protective barrier against stimuli (Reizschutz, Freud) and of mental trauma. As a psychoanalyst who is also passionate about cinema and theater, while discussing the clinical case of the agoraphobic patient he embraces the analogical suggestion between the "fear of open space" and the anxiety of the lack of the "fourth wall" on the stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In her discussion of the paper by Sotiris Monolopoulos "Internalization process and a transference in a traumatized patient" the author is considering the clinical material from the point of view of the object relations and unconscious phantasies. The patient comes to analysis after a breakdown, wishing mainly to restore his inner balance - defensive structure, which makes extremely difficult for the analyst to establish a contact with him. The patient preserves the phantasy of relationship with a seductive object, who promises protection and food, only to then reject, betray and humiliate him; this picture justifies the patient's revengeful attacks - he then can ignore the reality of understanding and containment by the analyst. At the same time, the patient is in great need for the analyst though trying to use him perversely in the transference - without establishing and recognizing dependent relationship. However, the analyst is still associated with the hope for reparation of the damaged inner objects and getting out of the psychic retreat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a discussant, the author tries to discern into the presented clinical material, and then to focus the attention of the reader of Ferhan Ozenen's impressive case presentation, on some repetitive transferential-countertransferential aspects in the dynamics of the analytic situation and process, which, if not being duly taken into account in the countertransference and through the reflection on the "role responsiveness" of the analyst, or not being opportunely pointed-out, constructed, and then interpreted and analysed in the transference, could lead to some massive regressive psychic movements in the patient and to a rather destructive acting-outs. In this sense, listening "beyond the contrapuntal psychic flow" to what has not been said in the sessions, through the lens of "listening of the analysand's listening", could be of great help for stimulating and enhancing the analyst's capacity and openness towards traumatic repetitions and transgenerational impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper "Revision of drive theory" (Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane, 2022, 56, 3: 363-422) Mark Solms (2021a) correctly argues that the basic motivational forces are affect systems, activated following the general homeostatic principles that govern biological processes that assure survival and reproduction. However, psychoanalytic object relation theory points to a specifically human, supraordinate integrative motivational system that condenses component affect systems into the affiliative and counteraffiliative motivations described by Freud with the concepts of libido and aggression. They are not "drives" in the psychobiological sense, but profoundly define unconscious intrapsychic conflict and are relevant in clinical psychoanalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freud’s lecture given on December 1, 1909, at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society on Leonardo da Vinci is examined. This lecture is a forerunner of his later article Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of his Childhood (Freud, 1910b). An attempt is made to emphasize the inconsistency between Freud’s hypotheses and the historical data by then at his disposal. Avoiding entering Freud’s vulture slip that many scholars have pointed out and Freud never acknowledged, concerns are expressed about Freud’s required documentation in the field of art history and about the method he employed for the portrayal of Leonardo da Vinci’s personality. It seems that Freud willingly avoided historical data choosing almost entirely to rely on applied psychoanalysis widely employing his own phantasies in attempting to overcome the paucity of knowledge on Leonardo da Vinci’s childhood. Freud himself later acknowledged that his 1910 paper was partly a fictional story along the lines of Mereskovskij’s 1895 book on Leonardo. A crucial inconsistency of this lecture, that will not be amended in his paper of 1910, relates to the fact that Freud changed into a phantasy what Leonardo had reported as a childhood memory. Many scholars have taken for granted this shift so that they talked about Leonardo’s “phantasy” or “dream”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Viennese historian Johannes Reichmayr has edited the Collected Works of the psychoanalyst Paul Parin (1916-2009) in 19 volumes, published by the Viennese publisher Mandelbaum from 2018 to 2024. A pioneer of ethnopsychoanalysis, Parin has lived psychoanalysis as a form of social critique and political action, whose gradual and systematic articulation comes out very clearly from his Collected Works. Parin’s works are reconstructed in great detail in the context of his life, of the Zurich Psychoanalytic Seminar (PSZ) founded by him, and of his close collaboration with the journal Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane. The same is true for his successful literary activity, and for his participation in political life, documented as they are by a whole series of autobiographical papers and by various collections of letters, as it is shown also in the light of volumes 9 and 10, the latter being centered around “The burning problems of our times” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the clinical case of a couple psychoanalysis, the paper shows the complexity of the relationship between jealousy and the primary relationship experienced by each partner. The author shows how jealousy with its enigmatic aspects tends to mask pragmatic infantile dimensions connected to emotion and affect regulation (Atlas, 2023) and embodies a reactualization of the aesthetic conflict theorised by Meltzer (1981). The focus is on the dynamics of recognition in the couple and in the transference with the analyst: jealousy leads the partners not to recognize each other and not to recognize themselves; the analytical work opens for them a freer and deeper path of knowledge capable of tolerating ambivalence and complexity, towards shared thinkability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author addresses the issue of relationship between the organ transplantation and the migratory experience. In the transplant practice the organs “migrate”, prolonging their own existence and at the same time ensuring life to the recipient. The experience of organ transplantation shocks not only the body, but also the sense of Self, and the integration process is very complicated, because the hospitality is inseparable from the intrusion. The alienating experience of transplantation reveals the foreign in our own bodies. The new organ, in fact, is an intensily ambiguous object, that evokes the Freudian concept of Unheimlich. In this contribution the author tries to identify some analytical paths that could favour the psychosomatic integration of transplanted organs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is mainly concerned with the conception of free will in Freudian theory and psychoanalytic ego psychology. There are a number of Freuds, not all consistent with each other, on the issue of free will: the Freud who views free will as an illusion, the Freud who identifies as a goal of psychoanalytic treatment the enhancement of the ego’s freedom to choose, and the Freud who locates control of motility (action) in the conscious ego. As for an ego psychology perspective, free will lies in the ego’s relative autonomy from drives, as well as in the freedom to not will and to relinquish control. In contrast to Freudian theory and ego psychology, the question of free will is not salient in post-Freudian theories, where the greater emphasis is on issues having to do with meeting needs rather than on gratification of wishes. Finally, free will is not only a matter of freedom from inner compulsion, but also of freedom from external coercion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims at analysing the main legal issues and implications related to the digitalization in the financial sector (the so-called FinTech). The applications of technological innovation foster a reduction in the costs of activities and services, a greater speed of transactions and a substantial increase in financial inclusion. However, they imply new risks, in general, for the stability of the financial system, the integrity of the market, the fair competition and security and, in particular, for the protection of the investor. These issues, that are made more complex by the cross-border and cross-sectoral nature of digital finance, highlight not only the inadequacy of the current legislation, but also of the traditional methods of regulation and supervision. The access of global players in the financial market also triggers anti-competitive dynamics towards authorized intermediaries and does not allow the investor to interact consciously. Taking into account the need to guarantee the financial stability and to protect investors, the essay focuses on the regulatory and supervisory approaches adopted so far in relation to this phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the idea that the evaluation of public policies is witnessing a remarkable enlargement of its domain, in four relevant dimensions- its object, effect, methods, and data.Regarding the objects of evaluation, policy makers are increasingly interested not only in the evaluation of the content of policies (output) or the result (outcome), but also on a broader notion of impact, which includes direct and indirect effects, on the sub-system under analysis and on society at large. Regarding the effects of policies, the paper calls the attention on the rising of the notion of conditionality, requiring more flexible and sophisticated approaches for in itinere evaluation. With respect to new methods, the paper discusses new developments in counterfactual methods, robust nonparametric approaches (robust and conditional), as well as methods to deal with non commensurable indicators. Finally, the implications for evaluation of policies of the availability of microdata from public sources are examined. In all these devekopments new challenges are identified, calling for advanced methodological and quantitative work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to evaluate the scientific products of the Italian legal scholarship and make them comparable with the outputs in other scientific areas, some institutional actors have proposed to classify different scientific works (monographs, articles, notes etc.), publishers and journals. Part of learned societies in legal area have published a joint "Document on evaluation" (October 1, 2010) about methods and criteria that should be applied by various institutional organizations for several purposes. The aim of this paper is to offer a critique of that document, as well as to suggest that digital technologies (in particular, Open Access to science) might play a prominent role in the evaluation of products in the legal science field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors argue that there are good reasons for seriously considering the dynamics of the peer group when discussing psychoanalytical case material. The setting and procedure have to protect and facilitate for the presenter and the group members to work together. The aim of this paper is to discuss the problems connected with presenting and discussing clinical psychoanalytical material in a peer group and to describe one such specific method, which the authors call the Weaving Thoughts method. The design is primarily inspired by Bion's formulation thoughts in search of a thinker. The group participants reflect on the presented clinical material in a way that the authors metaphorically describe as creating a weave of thoughts that emerges from the material. The aim of the method is to facilitate a work-group climate that allows thoughts to wander about, and to avert group members from debating and compromising the integrity of its members by letting basic assumptions come into power. The method is described from theoretical and practical points of view, with two illustrations of seminars according to this design and finally a discussion of the advantages and drawbacks of the method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper highlights the need to reflect on the individual identification models underlying the training of the couple and family psychotherapist. These are complex processes that are difficult to specify but which deserve great attention. The trainee who already has personal psychoanalytic training must undergo a double mourning, that of the theoretical models of unipersonal psychology and that of his or her personal analysis, which he or she can only partially use. In fact, working in a multipersonal context-setting means training oneself to grasp the interactions between the participants and the manifestations of the ectopic unconscious that emerge. Moreover, in the training processes, the group experience of the learners, which dialogues with the groupness of the teachers, takes on great relevance. The group dimension is a fundamental experience that helps the therapist to continually confront the here and now that is generated in the horizontal exchanges of the group and that puts him in contact with the unexpected and the partiality of experience that he encounters in his work with couples and families. Finally, the reports presented by Grassi and Lucarelli preceding the reading of the work are reviewed and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The observations contained in Riccardo Marco Scognamiglio’s (2023a) paper “De tempore aut more” are an opportunity to give further considerations around the phenomenon described in “Presentification as maladaptive automatism in adolescence: possible correlated psychological manifestations” (Degasperi, 2023), and support questions and arguments of absolute relevance. At the same time, a prudent comparativism allows us to integrate the concept of presentification to highlight its possible maladaptive derivations. The latter can then be rigidly and pervasively expressed in individual behavior, to the point of giving shape to a possible lifestyle. The recovery of further descriptive models belonging to the past also suggests a broader consideration compared to current socio-cultural data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I would like to examine - from a psychoanalytical point of view - the pathological functioning characterized by the sensory excess in the mind which seems to constitute a fundamental component in psychosis. Starting from the observation of this specific topic in clinical experience with psychotic patients, I would like to illustrate some psychoanalytic assumputions on the genesis and progression of the psychotic state, evaluating its clinical and psychopathological implications. Bion's theory of thought and conceptualization on the invasion of the healthy part of the patient by the psychotic part - imbued with pathological sensoriality and which transforms the perception of psychic reality - is a main point in this paper (Bion, 1957). Some contemporary authors ideas on psychosis and neuroscientific evidence seems to converge on the significance of this subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the multilevel protection of rights from two perspectives. On the one hand, taking into consideration the legal and institutional contexts of each level in relation to the configuration in the constitutional state of a symmetry between democracy and rights, i.e. between a certain structure of public power and the protection of rights. The asymmetry inherent in the systemic and institutional contexts of the supranational levels must be understood from the perspective that, in multilevel protection, the interaction between the different levels is as important as the way in which rights are protected at each level. On the other hand, the work takes into account the impact that globalisation and European supranational integration are having on the multilevel protection of rights, which tends to detach the protection of rights from their constitutional substance. A loss of substance of rights that is also partially compensated by increased effectiveness, insofar as the sphere of rights protection is closer to the structural conditions of globalisation, such as the market, and to the rights on which conflicts are concentrated, consumer rights and the right to personal data protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with examine social citizenship in the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The study aims to understand whether social citizenship is capable of reproducing at the supranational level the rules of reciprocity and solidarity typical of national welfare systems. Indeed, the case-law of the Court of Justice wavering between opening and closing spaces of solidarity makes it difficult to access welfare benefits for European citizens who make use of free movement in the EU, especially those who are economically inactive. As a result, this jurisprudence risks forming, in the EU legal system, a logic of sharing social solidarity subordinated to the individual's contribution to the production of economic wealth in the host Member State. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the issue of the protection of fundamental rights by offering an interpretation aimed at underlining the value of the relationships that are intertwined with increasing frequency at various levels between national and supranational judges, identifying in them a new characteristic of the judicial activity that goes increasingly emerging in a perspective of cooperation to fuel which judges often do not decide the dispute but work in various ways through old and new institutions so that the final decision is increasingly oriented towards safeguarding the fundamental values of the human person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formulations regarding the patient’s history have not only played an important part in understanding the patient, but interpretations explicitly linking the present with the past have been seen as central to the therapeutic process. In this paper the author considers the role of historical reconstruction in bringing about psychic change. He emphasizes the therapeutic value that lies in the exploration of the way the patient’s history is embodied in his internal object relationships, becoming manifested in the transference-countertransference relationship. The author presents clinical material which he suggests allowed the analyst to follow the way the patient’s internal object relations, coloured by her history, became expressed and played out in the sessions. He suggests that, when these processes can be followed and addressed in the present, this may lead to a diminution in the underlying anxieties. This can thus promote psychic change by freeing the patient’s capacity to achieve a sense of connection with her history, and to tolerate the meaning of what emerges, which illuminates both the present and the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the relationship between interpretation and construction, underlining the conjectural value of constructions. The author traces the Freudian conceptualization of interpretation and construction in relation to dreams, transference and resistance, which must be taken into consideration as a priority. The vision of the Kleinian school is also critically explored, specifically regarding the emphasis on the need to provide systematic transference interpretations, which tends to excessively personalize the transference, overriding its value of repetition of the past. Starting from the vision of the French school and Winnicott, it is underlined how the main task of the analytical work is to facilitate the transformation of instinctual impulses into representations to subsequently make them accessible to interpretation. Starting from the difference between interpretation and construction, emphasis is also placed on their different use in neurotic and non-neurotic structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper illustrates an evolving theoretical-clinical study about the relationship between psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy. It comes from the observation of some recurrent phenomena in the context of daily clinical experience. Small variations, apparently accidental, that occur in the setting, and that are an expression of the complex dynamics of the unconscious intersubjective field. The psychoanalytic exploration of the experiences of affective interaction in the setting has brought out an increasingly real dimension of the implicit and its relationship with the unconscious. This pushes the analysis of the therapeutic process and therapeutic action towards a growing consideration of the silent and fruitful work that takes place beyond the symbolic-verbal support, where is a different way to dialogue, to communicate and influence each other. The approach presented aims to demonstrate that it is possible to take into account the growing evidence in the field of affective neuroscience, epigenetics and infant research, preserving the foundations of the psychoanalytic clinical approach developed in the relational context. An empathic, intersubjective and affective approach based on the phenomenological and holistic experience of mother-infant dyadic interaction. The clinical-technical foundation of this approach is the experience of regression in analysis, a condition not only for resurfacing and processing of trauma, but also for interactive repair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper takes cue from the current changes occurring in the two emerging sectors named "the green (ecology) and the blue (technology)" by the scholar Floridi on one hand, and from the increasing diffusion of remote communication instruments linked to growing manifestations of psychopathological events of social withdrawal, on the other. While the proliferation of research focused on the increasing incidence of psychological and somatic diseases derived from solitude and loneliness is there for all to see, at the same time it is undeniable that relationships are started and carried on using new media which accentuate both the sense of isolation and omnipotence. These considerations have led the authors to the necessity of contemplating "new analytical practices". They think that one of the most productive ways of dealing with the exponential growth of serious psychic discomfort - especially in young people - is implementing permanently, in their modus agendi, the complex paradigm of a clinical-empirical research approach on oneiric narration. It is known from Jung indeed, that dreams are not only "the essence of the psyche" but also represent essential instruments to comprehend and treat psychic suffering. Such an approach, first presented in IAAP Conference held in LUMSA in 2022 Narratives in Current Analytical Psychology. Studies about Mind-Body Relations will be described here in full detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes as its focus the massive increase in children and young people (CYPs) seeking gender transition. It discusses the factors that have contributed to this both at the individual level and at the socio-cultural level. At the individual level there are many pathways to gender dysphoria (such as internalized homophobia, complex comorbid problems, histories of family trauma and so on). The author considers that a very large number of children have been seriously harmed through the penetration of the "trans" ideology into child and adolescent services leading to their complex problems being seen only through the prism of gender, thus leading to these problems being neglected. The paper also looks at the broader socio-cultural processes that have contributed to this phenomenon - such as the commodification of health care, misogyny, relativization of truth, all contributing to what the author terms "a peculiar mode of thinking" that has come to dominate this debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 Gruppo di Parola for children having separated parents is a short, preventive and support intervention aiming at promoting the resources and the well-being of participants both in individual terms as well as in the relational and familiar ones. In the scientific literature few contributions analyze this intervention from the process' point of view. This paper focuses on a specific phase of the path during the first meeting - called "opening phase". The aim is to identify some common elements in the interactive exchanges that allow the researcher to identify patterns of interaction. Three different Gruppi di Parola were considered, conducted in the same context (Service for families) and by the same operators (two females). This paper illustrates in details the coding system developed with the aid of the Transana software. The analyses confirm the presence of interactive configurations common to the three Gruppi di Parola. In particular, the intervention is characterized by an involvement of participants through an individual level as well as a group level (the group becomes the subject). Some elements of processual rituality and micro-rituality are also identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some reflections are made on the meaning of measurement in psychotherapy and on the relationship between the roles of technique and of the therapist's person. Parts of previous papers are also republished, namely some excerpts of the 1992 book La persona e la tecnica ["The Person and the Technique"] (reprinted in 2022 by the publisher FrancoAngeli of Milan) and of the preface, written in 1960, to the Italian edition of Harry Stack Sullivan's 1953 book The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry (La teoria interpersonale della psichiatria. Milan: Feltrinelli, 1961). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dramatization is an established field of research, and teaching/learning methodology to improve of social, emotional, and creative skills and for the acquisition of knowledge about subjects such as history. Nevertheless, there are few studies on children's spontaneous dramatization in educational context and its potential role in development. This paper is aimed at filling such gap. The term dramatization, as we will use here, refers to the human activity of staging meanings in narrative and ritualistic form, enacted through the whole person and multiple communication channels. The school context is a privileged arena to observe spontaneous dramatization between peers and between children and adults. Besides, school routine is often filled with staged dramatizations aimed at building for instance a collective identity or provide moral orientations. The paper discusses a new theoretical framework to recognize dramatizations in the school context and to use their transformative value for the construction of socially competent personalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the impact of the plan Next Generation European Union (NGEU) on the rights and duties of European citizens, with particular attention to the decisions adopted to find the financial resources at the supranational level and in the implementation phase at national level. After an initial overview of the social dimension of the plan, the paper focuses on the instruments used to finance it. The issue of a common debt by the EU is analyzed, as well as the legal issues it raises and its prospects. Next, the paper examines the duty of contribution of European citizens, the procedural rules that hinder the building a European tax system supporting the Union budget, and the potential impact of the NGEU on this path. Finally, the paper focuses on fiscal federalisms at the national level, to verify the impact on them of the NGEU implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on one idea and built around one clinical experience that helped me to broaden my comprehension of it. The idea, underlying the work of several authors is that when the analytic field is saturated with primitive and unintegrated mental contents, the analyst's somatic countertransference is a precious indicator of a deep, dissociated form of communication. The clinical experience concerns the difficult elaboration of a complex, multifaceted countertransference that took place during the early stages of the analysis of a sensitive patient who used to communicate in a very dissociated way and that I found hard to contain. This experience, closely descripted in the article, led me to formulate the clinical idea that the transference field may be made of distinct layers (psychoid, affective, verbal), and that each one of them may potentially convey dissociated, even contrasting bits of information. The corollary of this is that the analyst should be ready to accept contrasting sensations, feelings, and thoughts at the same time, as they might be the basic ingredients of a complex reverie. The analyst could find himself/herself in front of his/her own internal unelaborated multiplicity before a symbolic image may emerge to link between them the scattered pieces of the experience. Nevertheless, the heart of this paper is not about suggesting an idea, but in the sharing of a complex working through, which fostered the birth of a new, more human relational perspective: the capacity of being together in time, in a transitional space where there is neither total separation nor fusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is based on an article by the author, published in Italian (Richard e Piggle, 1993), and republished in English (Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 1995): The Sound Object - A hypothesis about prenatal auditory experience and memory. The article suggested that a maternal proto-object with sound and rhythmical qualities develops during prenatal life thanks to the foetus' capacity to hear and listen to the mother's voice, together with its protomental introjective activity which may underlie the development of the prenatal auditory memory. In the Postscript the author gives further thought to issues around the emergence of subjectivity. Her considerations, based on more recent research and psychoanalytic literature, are focused around two crucial areas of enquiry: the origins of mental life and the first flickers of awareness of the self as a subject-object. She explores the primary/prenatal dialectic between relatedness and the emergence of an ego nucleus, as well as the early origins of a "proto-symbolic" function of the human mind and its capacity to intuit that the transformational process of sense perceptions into experiences is implicitly a bearer of meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper collects and describes several clinical experiences with extremely pre-term born babies. They were nursed using different kind of settings: institutional, are NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) with the subsequent clinical follow-up and with the help of private therapies. Through these lengthwise efforts, some of the pre-term newborn's features, such as the complexity in psychosomatic integration, were identified and better understood. The cases described show how the sensorial intrusion achieved from the intensive cares, may influence the integration process as the newborn's development further up, entangling the parental interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to investigate the instruments of popular participation, specifically the deliberative ones, provided in the Chilean constituent processes, with particular reference to the one that ended on 4 September 2022, with the failure to approve the constitutional text drafted by the Constitutional Convention, and to the current constituent process started with the "Acuerdo por Chile" of the following December 12. The purpose is to highlight not only the centrality of these instruments in the writing of a new constitutional text, but also the benefits and problems arising from their use. The analysis of popular participation in Chilean constituent processes also allows to point out their similarities and differences and to reflect, if only partially, on the future of the Chilean constituent moment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper, after a brief introduction, traces back the historical event, before and after the wars of the last century, which led to the establishment of the Council of European Municipalities, highlighting the Italian contribution in the second post-war period to the development of the role of local autonomies in the process of European integration as a political-ideal and socio-territorial basis for the formation of a Europe of citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]