Edizioni FrancoAngeli - Last issue of PSICOTERAPIA E SCIENZE UMANE (2/2012)

Contemporary psychoanalytic theory: an overall evaluation

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Morris N. Eagle
Major trends in contemporary psychoanalytic theory are critically reviewed, also in reference to the author’s recent book From Classical to Contemporary Psychoanalysis. A Critique and Integration (New York: Routledge, 2011). In particular, the following themes are discussed: passionate depth versus banal shallowness, common themes in contemporary psychoanalytic theories, one-person versus two-person psychology, the social construction of mind, the "cognitivization" of psychoanalysis, human condition versus environmental failure as the origin of psychopathology, the place of reality-testing in contemporary psychoanalysis, influence of the Zeitgeist (e.g., of cultural trends, for example regarding postmodern and relativistic views) on psychoanalytic formulations, and so on.

Nazism as illness of the "german soul"

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

In order to understand what happened in Germany and Europe during Nazi domination (particularly the planned extermination of patients, Jews, "Gypsies", and Slavs), it is indispensable - as Primo Levi said - "to understand Germans", since Nazi regime constantly relied on active participation of the majority of population. As Thomas Mann pointed out, a key factor of the plebiscitary consensus obtained by the regime was - together with a strong quest for order and security, and the willingness to trust the decisions of a charismatic leader - the widespread need to belong to an homogeneous, cohesive and closed community; this, in turn, generated a psychological and moral climate which favored the dehumanization of the "foreign" and of internal and external enemies. In order to appropriately reconstruct historical events, it is necessary to consider these aspects of what Thomas Mann called the "German soul", that were likely powered by an authoritarian educational model derived from military ideology.

Illness as "premonition"

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

David Meghnagi
On the basis of Silvano Arieti’s book The Parnas: A Scene from the Holocaust (New York: Basic Books, 1979), some considerations on Judaism and on the tragedy of Shoah are made. The Parnas was Giuseppe Pardo Roques, Head of the Jewish Community of Pisa (Italy), killed in his home in August 1944, together with 11 people of his household, by Nazi soldiers who were never identified. The Parnas suffered of a rare form of persecutory mental disorder, and his illness is seen also as a form or "premonition" of the persecution of Jewish population and of the Holocaust. The Parnas is one of the last books by Silvano Arieti (1914-1981), a psychiatrist who emigrated from Pisa to the United States where he became one of the most influential psychiatrists of the time.

The stranger at the border

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Marianna Bolko
Some reflections on the issues of racism and fear of stranger and novelty are made. These behaviors are analyzed from the viewpoints of psychoanalysis (e.g., with the concepts of projection and identification with the aggressor), ethno- psychoanalysis, and sociology. The author also recounts some aspects of her family history, when during World War Two was living under Italian occupation and, later, German occupation, and after 1947 belonged to a Slovenian ethnic minority in Trieste. (This paper, with the original title "Accepting or rejecting the other: Psychopathologies of the borders", was presented on March 14, 2011, at a series of seminars titled "On the road", organized by Stefano Benni and Alessandro Castellari at the Pluriversità dell’Immaginazione "Grazia Cherchi" of Bologna, Italy).

Primary care and balint groups from the 1970s to the present.

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Gabriele Vezzani
The relationship between primary care and psychotherapy is discussed, with emphasis on Balint groups as an important training method for the psychological education of general practitioners. This paper is a synthesis of the intervention held at the meeting "Psychiatry and primary care" (Reggio Emilia, Italy, January 25, 1991). Here it is introduced by a detailed note of the Author who retraces the history of the attempts made in the 1970s-80s by the health care system of Reggio Emilia (Italy) at improving the psychological education of primary care physicians, within a general movement of renewal of services also in other sectors such as welfare, environmental health, community psychiatry, occupational medicine, hospital care, education, etc. The reasons why these reforms were later interrupted are discussed.

Which psychiatry? comment on the book review essay by marcia angell published in the new york review of books, 2011, june 23 and july 14

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Giovanni Andrea Fava
The Author comments on an essay by Marcia Angell in The New York Review of Books (in two parts: "The epidemic of mental illness: Why?", 2011, 58, 11: 20-22; "The illusions of psychiatry", 2011, 58, 12: 20-22). Angell’s critical stand against pharmaceutical psychiatry has reasonable roots, but cannot be generalized to the psychiatric profession and research. A different psychiatry exists and offers the basis for a highly specialized approach, that incorporates both psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy.

Casi clinici. Interventi sul caso Sebastiano

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Anna Maria Loiacono, Jack Drescher, Paolo Migone, Antonino Firetto

Recensioni

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Riviste

Wed, 15 May 2012 8:00:00 GMT