The Relational Model: International Relations and Dissemination in Italy: A Historical Account

Abstract

In this paper we attempt to describe how the relational model spread in Italy primarily from the microcosm of the Institute that we founded—ISIPSÉ—and in which we tried to create a community within which we could study the contemporary theories and meet the psychoanalysts who gave life to the relational movement. We describe a process of creating a cultural space that allows us to dialogue directly with those who contributed to the evolution of contemporary psychoanalysis. Today in psychoanalytic literature the growing importance of the implicit refers primarily to the importance of the body in the analytic relationship. Therefore we believe that in the training of therapists attention for an embodied, physical transmission of psychoanalysis makes the transition from theory to clinical situation more consistent and smoother.

Notes

¹ Few months before we started a collaboration with the National Institute for the Psychotherapies of New York to organize the international conference “Multiple Perspective on Subjectivity: A Dialogue Between Europe and America.” The conference was held in Rome at Palazzo Barberini in March 1999. Among others, in that occasion, we had the opportunity to dialogue with Bartosch (Vienna), Bleichmar (Madrid), Coburn (Los Angeles), Demos (New York), Fosshage (New York), Gotthold (New York), Kennedy (Londra), Kindler (Toronto), Lachmann (New York), Orange (New York), and Slavin (Boston).

² Guest speakers in Rome and Milan were Robert Stolorow, Joseph Lichtenberg, Malcolm Slavin, Donna Orange, James Fosshage, Hazel Ipp, Frank Lachmann, Beatrice Beebe, Philip Ringstrom, Neil Altman, Jody Davies, Jessica Benjamin, Lewis Aron, Steven Knoblauch, Emmanuel Ghent, Daniel Stern, Spyros Orfanos, Tony Bass, William Coburn, Steve Seligman, Stuart and Barbara Pizer, Darlene Erhenberg, Joyce Slochower, Donnel Stern, Muriel Dimen, Virginia Goldner, Jack Drescher, Estelle Shane, Anna and Paul Ornstein, Ernie Wolf, Shelley Doctors, and Andrew Morrison. Most of them came many times in Italy.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gianni Nebbiosi

Gianni Nebbiosi, Ph.D., is a Founding Member, Faculty, Training Analyst at Institute for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology and Relational Psychoanalysis; Member of the Board for the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy; Member of the International Board, International Association Psychoanalytic Self Psychology.

Susanna Federici

Susanna Federici, Ph.D., is President, International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy; Founding Member, Faculty, Training Analyst of the Institute for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology and Relational Psychoanalysis; and Member of the International Board of the International Association Psychoanalytic Self Psychology.